Adding Wheat to EVERYTHING

Okay, I've brewed just about every style of beer that I'm interested in, at least for now, and I'm considering doing some variations on previous recipes to give them a summertime feeling. Obviously, putting wheat into beers is great for the summer, so I present my two latest ideas.

First, Nuclear Summer Stout:

7 lb Wheat LME
1 lb Oats, Flaked
1 lb Roasted Barley
1/2 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.2 %
2 oz Black Patent Malt
1.00 oz Target 11% (30 min) 30.2 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent 5% (0 min)
1 Pkgs London Ale (White Labs #WLP013)

Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated FG: 1.015 SG
Estimated Color: 39.7 SRM
Bitterness: 30.2 IBU
Alpha Acid Units: 2.2 AAU
Estimated ABV: 4.9 %


This is pretty close to my Winter Stout, with less black patent and no flaked barley. I think it could work, although I'm not sure if I should change the hops around. I also would probably add blackberry extrac to a 1/5 of this batch, which I did with great success with my winter stout.

Second, (tentatively named) Crystal Dawn:

9 lb Wheat LME
1 lb Munich Malt
1/2 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
1/2 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L
1/2 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
1 oz Summit 18% (30 min) 44 IBU
5 oz Crystal 3.5% (5 min) 11.1 IBU

Estimated OG: 1.067 SG
Estimated FG: 1.017 SG
Estimated Color: 14.7 SRM
Bitterness: 55.1 IBU
Alpha Acid Units: 3.6 AAU
Estimated ABV: 6.5 %


This one is in the very beginning planning stages. I've had two different concepts that I'm considering combining. One is doing a beer with all the crystal malts, or at least a good number of them. I think my LHBS has four different ones, so I'll have to check on that. The other part of the first concept is using only crystal hops for bittering, flavor, and aroma. The other idea is a wheat IPA.

So I've kinda grafted them together into a Frankstein's Beer. I cheated by using Summit for the bittering hops, because otherwise I'd have to get about 3/4 lb of hops to get the IBUs I want if I used only Crystal. This second recipe is definitely wide open for changes, so if anyone has suggestions or comments, they'd be greatly appreciated.

Hey man, I have an AG stout going that is very similar to your nuclear stout. Its ready to be bottled and tasting REAL good.

Awesome. The wheat stout recipe is more locked in. I feel pretty good about it. The one I'm not so sure about is the wheat IPA. Has anyone ever tried to make an IPA using hops other than the traditional big citrusy American varieties? I tried a german ingredients only IPA brewed in Texas. It's okay, but not really hoppy enough. I talked to the brewmaster and he said the dry-hopping didn't come out as good as he wanted initially, and the third batch of it is nice and juicy, so I'll be giving it another try.

7.00 lb Wheat Liquid Extract
1.00 lb Barley, Flaked
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt
0.50 lb Roasted Barley
0.25 lb Black (Patent) Malt
1.00 oz Target [10.00%] (20 min)
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.00%] (0 min)
0.50 oz Burton Water Salts
1 Pkgs London Ale (White Labs #WLP013)

This recipe is almost identical to my original oatmeal stout. I upped the LME to 7lbs from 6lbs, and I dropped the black patent from 1/2lb (!) to just 1/4lb. Otherwise, it's the same thing. I brewed it this morning, and got an OG of 1.051. It's got the nice roastiness, and some pleasant breadiness in it as well, with a pretty quality bitter finish. Looking forward to the results!

i'd be interested in a Wheat IPA recipe!

i've got a few recipes lined up using wheat and my new favorite: ACID MALT....yummy...small amounts in brew add wonderful flavor

Melana said:

i'd be interested in a Wheat IPA recipe!

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I've split that previous recipe into two different ones. The wheat IPA is going to be called Incendiary IPA:

9.00 lb Wheat Liquid Extract
1.00 lb Munich Malt
1.00 lb Pale Malt
0.50 oz Summit [18.00%] (30 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.00%] (20 min)
0.50 oz Summit [18.00%] (10 min)
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.00%] (0 min)

This recipe hits just above 40 IBUs, which is on the low side for an IPA, but seems more appropriate for a wheat beer. The predicted OG is 1.067. This is a lot closer to the final recipe, but I still may change it around some, maybe adding a third hop variety, either during the boil or for dry-hopping. I'm thinking I might skip dry-hopping for this one though.

I have one that uses a bit of each of your concepts in my secondary right now. It uses 3 caramel/crystal malts and also has acid malt, but unfortunately no wheat (I usually put about 1 lb wheat DME into whatever I'm brewing for head retention).
Your Crystal Dawn recipe looks good to me, keep us posted!

This looks good! What yeast did you use for this?

Melana said:

This looks good! What yeast did you use for this?

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I haven't made the Wheat IPA yet, and I haven't actually picked out a yeast strain either. I could go all over the place with this. On the one hand, I could go with a standard IPA yeast, like White Labs WLP001 California Ale. I could also try to emphasize weizen qualities with something like WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale, although I'm not sure the bubblegum and banana flavors would work well with a strong citrus hoppiness. I could even get a little crazy and try WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale, for a spicier flavor. Tough decision!

i'd go for a belgian yeast. if you're going to use the wlp300, just keep it around 68 F and it would be mighty tasty

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm i'll have to try this one out! I love wheat beer and my hubby loves IPA's.

I am planning on brewing an IPA with a Saison yeast...I just have this feeling that it will be super tasty.

The Wheat Stout has been in bottles for a week. I cracked one tonight, and it's really good! Strong flavors, but relatively light body, and a smooth roasty, bitter, chocolately finish that really satisfies.

I still haven't done the wheat IPA, but it's next on my list. I think I'm going to pitch it onto the twice used yeast cake from my two belgian half-wits. Is that still safe? I've heard three re-uses is the limit. A double-stacked yeast cake means I could probably go pretty high on the starting gravity for the IPA as well. Thoughts?

I'm fairly new to brewing, but doing PM's and having good success...
My idea (I aready have the malts and hops for the recipe) is to mix perhaps 25% WLP300 with 75% of WLP013 and work your wheat stout from there. What are the possible downfalls of mixing 2 yeast strains that are that different?
Great idea by the way....

from my understanding...when mixing yeasts, generally one will dominate and force the other to go dormant. not sure how it will work if they can both do their jobs and work together, however

no matter what, i don't think you will ever be able to duplicate the brew again.

Hey I se you're in Oaktown also...

What got me curious about mixing was the White Labs poster that I picked up from Oak Barrel. They are selling a limited release mix of WLP001, 002, 004, and 810.
I was hoping with the mixing to get a little of the banana/clove character into the stout..

right on...good to see another from the east bay on here. let me go check my door (where i hung the WLP poster) and do a little more research and i'll hop back on this thread

well, you got me curious about this, so i checked out a bunch of different reviews, discussions, faqs and websites and (apart from some really bad advice about champagne yeast) they all seem to say the same thing: it may turn out great, but predicting how it's going to work will be difficult.

no good links to post, just some half-ass investigation

basically, you probably won't be able to duplicate the beer but it may be worth the experiment.

also, if you just throw both yeasts in, you won't know which one is going to dominate.

what i would do is throw in maybe half a vial of the hefeweizen yeast to start fermentation (you can keep the rest for a future hefe ) and after that has been fermenting for a day, throw a nice big starter of your other yeast in there so it will take over. i think that would give it a better chance of dominating and finishing the beer and you'll still get the wheat yeast flavor from it's initial fermentation.

if you do try this, make sure you use a secondary to clear the beer and you may wish to look into other additives for clearing.

best advice i can give...if you give it a shot, let me know how it turns out!

cheers

That sounds like a great idea. I'm gonna do it. A WLP300 first then a WLP 013

I never did the second/third recipes, and I'm interested in trying the wheat IPA out for this summer. Looking at it now, I think I'd like to just try using wheat in the IPA, but going with standard IPA ingredients otherwise, such as strong citrusy hops and something like WLP001 California Ale to ferment. I don't think hefe-weizen yeast would go well with strong hop flavors. I suppose it COULD work with strong bitterness but no hop character, though. Hmmm...

Holy **** big "T". Where ya been?

You want a big wheaty IPA, try my Outer Limits and replace a few pounds of the two row with some wheat.

Damn it's Torchiest again. Welcome back.

I saw your name and figured some one dug up an old thread, but here you are posting in it.

On-topic: I like wheat. Seems like when I do brew, I add a bit everytime. I'd really like to do some batches of beer with a large wheat percentage in a non-wheat style.

Hey there! Still brewing, but a combination of business and laziness has prevented me from posting. I have two jobs and a baby on the way, so life is pretty hectic these days. Good to see some familiar people around here still! I'll check your recipe out.

McKBrew said:

I like wheat. Seems like when I do brew, I add a bit everytime. I'd really like to do some batches of beer with a large wheat percentage in a non-wheat style.

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That stout I made with wheat was really excellent, and something I'd like to make again.

I also had plans to try making a wheat porter sometime, but in that case, I think I would actually go with hefe-weizen yeast, as the banana flavor seems like it would work really well with a chocolate malt flavor.

Really old thread, but I am thinking of doing some experimenting with wheat and IPA ingredients. Did you ever get around to trying that? If so, how did it turn out?

Cheers!