Mashing Wheat?

Greetings,

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I'm gonna brew some wheat beer. Never done a wheat from all grain. Here's my grain bill:

5 lbs Briess 2 Row
5 lbs Briess White Wheat
1 lb Rice Hulls

Any special "rests" or whatever to get my goodies out of the wheat?

PS: I'm also planning to add a couple pounds of honey at flameout. Sound like a good strategy? Beersmith is predicting an OG of 1.062, which is a little high for the style... Thoughts?

Also, if it matters, I have my starter swirling on the plate, WL American Ale Blend (WLP060).

Thanks for any and all input.

With most modified malted wheat, no protein rest is necessary. You should be fine doing a single infusion rest with that grain bill. However, if you were using unmalted wheat, you would need to do a protein rest, such as with a Belgian Whit.

A couple pounds of honey is a pretty decent amount. You will get some honey notes from that. What kind of flavors and final gravity range are you shooting for?

TB

Beersmith predicts an FG of 1.016. I'm really looking for a semi sweet style of wheat. I've never used honey... Do you think 2 lbs is too much?

I don't know exactly what your OG would be, but if you wanted to be closer to an AM wheat style wise, you could take it down to 4/4lbs instead of the 5/5 you have now. You'd probe be around 1.048-050

Good Luck

BigTexun said:

Beersmith predicts an FG of 1.016. I'm really looking for a semi sweet style of wheat. I've never used honey... Do you think 2 lbs is too much?

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Honey contains mostly fermentable sugars, so that honey addition will dry out fairly well, leaving some flavors behind. There's nothing wrong with 2 lbs, per se, if you're looking for a good honey presence in the beer. However, to keep it on the sweeter side, as you say you want, you could add some lactose towards the end of the boil or just simply mash at a higher temperature, say, 156-158F or so. I'm not exactly sure how sweet you want it, or how much honey flavor you want, so I'm kind of shooting in the dark here. This might be a good place to start though.

Hope it turns out!
TB

You could also use 6 row instead of 2 row..it has more diastatic power which can aid in conversion of grains that do not have enough diastatic power to convert themselves.

It's a thought.

No need for six row, wheat malt has just as high of DP anyway. It's malted. I've never needed rice hulls even with 60% wheat or rye malt.

Lactose in a wheat? Bad idea. Some crystal (5% or so) is alright in a American wheat.

With that much honey it will be dry. Even 15% may be too much.

Conroe said:

No need for six row, wheat malt has just as high of DP anyway. It's malted. I've never needed rice hulls even with 60% wheat or rye malt.

Lactose in a wheat? Bad idea. Some crystal (5% or so) is alright in a American wheat.

With that much honey it will be dry. Even 15% may be too much.

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There's nothing wrong with lactose in a wheat beer. This is not a hefeweizen. Some crystal is fine, but might not give him the sweetness he's looking for if he adds all that honey.

TB

Crystal 20L tastes a whole lot more like honey than lactose does.

Conroe said:

Crystal 20L tastes a whole lot more like honey than lactose does.

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Shouldn't he have plenty of honey flavor already? The honey will ferment out pretty well, but will leave behind flavor compounds not related to sugar. Some crystal would help, though, I'm not denying that. Maybe skip the lactose, and use some c-20, and mash higher?

You could also try using a lower attenuating yeast. That will leave more of the fermentable sugars behind, which taste sweeter than the unfermentable ones. Just a thought.

TB

honey like mentioned is extremely fermentable and will thin the brew and boost the alcohol level.

Adding honey at flame out will give you the most flavor from the honey, but you really will only have subtle notes. 2# is a nice amount for your recipe. It will give you some kick without the alcohol bite.

if you want sweet honey flavor, look into using a bit of honey malt.

like mentioned, you really shouldn't need all those hulls if you need any at all!

6 row instead of the use of 2 row will give you a little more grainy flavor. 6 row goes well with American style wheat beers, so that is a definite option in the future.

1099 whitbread yeast or 1056 is a good yeast as a go to.. Danstar Nottingham is another neutral yeast that can be fermented down in low 60's and bring your TG down to .006
have fun