Input on first recipe

I was on the extract brewing forum and someone was talking about a wheat IPA, and I was inspired to design my own. I've never made a recipe before (always used kits from mid west supplies) so this is basically just a bunch of stuff that sounds good to me, any input would be greatly appreciated.

Buckman's Wheat IPA
Batch size: 5 gallons

3.3 lbs Briess Amber LME
3.3 lbs Briess Wheat LME
1 lb Light DME

Hops:
2 oz glacier (bittering)
2 oz amarillo (aroma)
2 oz cascade (dry hopping)

Specialty grains:
1 lb Carawheat
1/2 lb chocolate wheat

and I'm also toying with the idea of adding maybe 2oz of peated malt to the mix (I know some people aren't big on it, but I love the stuff.)

any suggestions?

also I plan on adding just one oz of the glacier hops at sixty and the other at thirty, then adding one oz of amarillo at ten and the rest right when I turn the heat off.

It doesn't sound like enough bitterness for an IPA to me. What AA% are the hops?

Could you describe what sort of flavors you want in the beer? At the moment it looks like an American Brown Ale to me.

glacier has an AA% of 5.9, amarillo is 8.6 and cascade is 7.4.

Now that I write that down, I think i'll use the cascade for bittering and the glacier for dry hopping. I'm a fan of the wheat beers I've tried, but have never really brewed with wheat before and just thought that using a large amount of wheat along with lots of hops would be interesting. I'm trying to have a pretty decent amount of bitterness but also a rather noticeable malty presence. The reason I'm not using the amarillo for bittering is because I love the grapefruit/ citrusy aroma that it gives off. Should I change some of the hops I'm using or add more?

also I'm planning on using white labs burton ale yeast (WL023).

Wheat doesn't really have much flavor of its own, what most people associate with it is the flavors (banana, clove) made by the yeast used in German hefe weizens. Wheat extract is also only about 50% wheat, so you might want to just use that if you want to maximize the flavor.

If you add both ounces of Cascades at 60 min and 1 oz of Amarillo at 10 you'll end up with ~55 IBUs. The usual standard for an IPA is 1 IBU for every .001 of original gravity so you'll be pretty close since your OG will be about 1.060.

I'm going for a darker/ambery color as well though, could you recommend any type of grains to darken it up if I were to use all wheat extract?

And has anyone tried this white labs burton yeast before? I've never used liquid yeast before and white labs is supposed to be pitchable right out of the package. should I make a starter anyway?

thanks for the quick replies by the way

edb23 said:

I'm going for a darker/ambery color as well though, could you recommend any type of grains to darken it up if I were to use all wheat extract?

And has anyone tried this white labs burton yeast before? I've never used liquid yeast before and white labs is supposed to be pitchable right out of the package. should I make a starter anyway?

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4 oz of chocolate wheat should get you a dark-amber color. It is dehusked so it has a smoother character than regular chocolate malt.

I don’t care for Burton ale, but lots of people like it. To me it is sort of minerally. For English yeasts I like 1968 (London ESB) since it is maltier and rounder. The liquid yeast are fine to pitch out of the packet IF the yeast is very fresh (say within a month of production) and you are doing a low gravity beer (~1.045 or lower), but even then you are better off making a starter.

so I guess I should make a starter for this particular one since it's going to have an OG of around 1.060?