Help Constructing Unique Wheat Beer

Hey guys! I have decided that the next brew that I make will be a wheat beer of variety. I will proceed to generalize what I want, and I what I do not want from this brew.

Do Want in order of importance:
-Must Contain large portion wheat, may also contain other 'non base malt grains'
-Super Nutty/Malty Flavor
-Moderate spiciness (think like hoe-garden, but stronger)
-Light to Dark Gold Color
-Overall Refreshing to drink, but not to light.
-Medium Mouth-feel and body
-(4.5-6.5) ABV

Do Not Want:
-Not concerned with fitting into a certain style
-Uber Citrus or fruity flavor
-light mouth-feel
-thick heavy mouth feel like with a German stout, it needs to be very drinkable

What I have thought of:
-5lbs Crisp Marris Otter
-4lbs Weyerman Dark Wheat
-2lbs Weyerman Rye Malt
-1lbs Biscuit Malt
-1oz Challanger at 60 min
-1oz Challanger at 15 min

-SRM: 9.73
-OG: 1.065
-FG: 1.016
-ABV: 6.42
-IBU: 34.1

White Labs Heffe IV: "Large clove and phenolic aroma and flavor, with minimal banana. Refreshing citrus and apricot notes. Crisp, drinkable hefeweizen. Less flocculent than WLP300, and sulfur production is higher. "

So what do you guys think? Any advice or suggestions, am I on the right track? Do you think that this kind of beer would really be tasty, or do you have any suggestions that could pull me in a more tasty direction?

Thanks guys!

I think that's a lot of rye.

I see, so what is going to happen as I increase the amount of Rye? I made a "rye ale" last time, and I really didn't get the 'characteristic" flavors that everyone speaks of, but then again, I think I might have missed them becuase I mashed at around 146 degrees.

Drop the rye by a pound and replace it with the Marris Otter

Will do! Any idea of the tasting characteristics I would probably have with this beer? Or What comericail beer it might taste kinda close to?

If you're looking for a little additional body and a creamy mouthfeel you may want to add 1 lb of flaked oats. I'm a fan of Unibroue's Blanche de Chambly witbier with it's creamy mouthfeel and medium body but I still find it quenching and refreshing

Alright! This is the newly revised recipe!

-4lbs 0oz Crisp Marris Otter
-3lbs 2oz Weyerman Dark Wheat
-0lbs 13oz Weyerman Rye Malt
-0lbs 13oz Biscuit Malt
-0lbs 13oz Flaked Oats
-.5oz Challanger at 60 min
-.5oz Challanger at 15 min

OG: 1.053
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.24
IBU: 19
SRM: 8.18

Current Price Before Taxes and Shipping is $27.87!

I need to come up with 3 more beers, I plan on ordering grain for 4 beers at the same time. Any further suggestions on this recipe or suggestions for new recipes to try and brew? I want my final order to be in the 100-120 range, so if I make an IPA it needs to be one that has most of it's bittering from a single high AA hop rather than lbs of misc hops.

That looks like it will be great!

I almost forgot to ask about the mash!

What I have been doing recently is this:

1. Single Infusion mash at a given temp (152 for this one at 60 mins?)
2. Gather all the wort I can with out bothering to get rid of the first running.
3. Add a hot water at about 170 to the mash tun, give a large stir and allow to settle for a few minutes before draining again to get my initial pre boil volume.

With this procedure, I have been much more efficient than if I had just poured the hot water over the grain bed and allowed it run through that way, I tried that on my first beer and really lost a lot of sugar I felt. I have heard many people though say that you should never stir the grain bed after you first let it settle.

So back to the original question, you guys think that a 152 degree mash for 1 hour should do the trick?

By the way, thanks for the advice and help with this brew!

Yep 152 F for 60 minutes sounds good to me, I made a wheat the other week and that's exactly what I did. One last thing you might want to add is a half pound of rice hulls to your grain bill. Since wheat has no husks that make for a good filter bed when lautering a stuck mash can often result. Just give the rice hulls a thorough rinsing with water, toss them in with the rest of your grains for the mash, and you should be all set

Aye on that nberna! I have 1 lb of rice hulls in my order for this beer!

jlangfo5 said:

2. Gather all the wort I can with out bothering to get rid of the first running.

Click to expand...

Wait a minute, what do you mean by this? Is that something you usually do? Toss out the first running?

I recently made a hefeweizen using the WLP380 and actually got a lot of banana flavor. I have read that this is due to temperature control and if I'm not mistaken (which I am a lot actually), you won't get that fruit flavor if you ferment with a lower temperature. I did mine at around 67F. There is a discussion about this yeast here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/wlp380-accentuate-clove-spicy-phenol-280667/

Let us know how it turns out.

Ah, What I mean by that second step there is that some people like to recycle the first part of their mashout and let it filter back through first, I personally don't bother and when i sparge will actually stir everything and let it settle a bit before opening the ball valve, I find that when I do that, I end up with a much more efficient mash.

That is weird to me. I feel like it is a waste of beer. How much do you throw out? Personally, if I were to stir, I would cycle the runnings back through as the grain bed re-compacted until the wort ran crystal clear. I'm very finicky about having clear beer, but it still baffles me that you would just toss out perfectly good wort. Whatever works for you I guess, I'm not trying to tell you how to brew but I just feel like that is a waste.

I think you mis-understand me, I don't throw anything out, i keep the first running's from my mash out, but some people will discard it or "sparge" with it. What I am saying that I do is this.

1. Mash out collecting alll I can into a brew kettle
2. Close valve on tun, add hot sparge water and give big stir
3. allow to settle for a few mins before opening valve and collect.
4. rinse and repeat.. no pun intended lol

I did this with a rye beer for my last brew. When the beer was in primary, it was plenty cloudy, but after it finished fermenting, and I added gelatin to it and gave it a shake/stir and allowed it to bulk age for 4 weeks. The end result was an amazingly clear beer, especially for rye!

AAAHHHHH I see. Thanks for the clarification. I was shocked and appalled at first haha.