Spiced Cranberry Dunkelweizen recipe

trying to brew something fast that will be ready for Thanksgiving and hefeweizens usually seems to ferment quickest, so heres my quick recipe. any opinions before i begin?

1/2# chocolate malt
1/2# crystal malt 60L
1/4# wheat malt

4# liquid wheat malt extract
3# liquid light malt extract

1 1/2oz sovereign UK hops (bittering)

3 cinnamon sticks
10 juniper berries
zest and juice of 1 orange
1 1/2# fresh cranberries
5 teaspoons pectic enzyme
1/2 oz sovereign UK hops (flavoring)

1 oz sovereign UK hops (aroma)

WLP320 American Hefeweizen yeast

the only thing i cant decide is add the cranberries to the end of the boil or tie them up in a grain bag in the fermenter.

Overall looks real tasty!

I've seen a lot of folks recommend putting fruit in the secondary, or primary after initial fermentation. Boiling may reduce some of the delicate flavors & aromas that you want to keep...

Spices tend to start out harsh in a young beer, and mellow out with aging. Depending on your tastes, you may want to err on the lighter end on spice additions if you plan to drink it young.

Lastly, the WLP320 yeast can add some clove/phenolic notes, especially when fermented colder. WLP320 is not very estery, but can contribut some at the higher ferm. temps. Some may say it is a lot going on. Others may say that more spice for the spiced beer is welcome. (I tried WLP320 with a Weizenbock w/strisslespalt flavor & aroma additions... was a lot going on, but some folks really loved it)

Let us know how it turns out!
--LexusChris

i pretty much stuck right to this recipe and just tied up the crushed cranberries, some orange zest and the spices into a grain bag and put them into the pot just as i killed the heat and let it steep like a giant tea bag. then, when straining i sanitized my hands, put on a pair of gloves and wrung out the bag with the cranberries to extract as much color and flavor as possible. pitched the yeast about 16 hours ago but dont see activity yet. now i remember why i prefer using dried yeast.

It seems like you've already made the beer but I would have had less chocolate malt in there. I did a Weizenbock last weekend and used only 2 oz of Chocolate to give some color and a touch of taste.

this beer is coming along great in the fermenter. very excited to bottle.

just tasted this one 4 days into bottling. tastes awesome. slightly tart, very subtle spice, great roasty brown aroma. head retention is poor, but i think this will be better once its fully carbonated.