Specific Grain types

I am relatively new to brewing and brand new to this forum. I apologize initially as my questions will be asked with out much knowledge of the brew process and still do not have the lingo down as of yet.

Anyhow, I had a question about brewing hefeweizen with specific grain types. I recently finished harvest on my family farm in E. Wash and have brought back some soft white winter wheat/ MJ4 to be precise.

Does anyone have experience with this particular varietal of grain, or at least brewing with soft whites? I'm hoping to concoct a recipe for a citrus wheat beer and thought I would ask here for any pointers and advice.

I'm doing most all prep work from scratch, roasting my own grains, pairing my malts and hops accordingly. I've much to learn and read about before embarking on this endeavor. Currently I/my friend have two brews under our belts out of a starter kit. This will be the first attempt to go at it on our own.

Thanks in advance for any feed back. Suggested reading and pointers would be greatly appreciated. Also personal experience with brewing with soft white wheats would be a great help too.

Kimberly

Are you malting the grains, or are they already malted? I don't know anything about malting, but I think that would be the hardest part.

I'll be malting (or whatever it is you do to wheat) myself. I'm reading up on the subject now. The grain was actually just harvested yesterday and being shipped tomorrow. I'll be purchasing the rest of the ingredients ready to go.

Well if growing, malting and roasting your own grain for a brew this early on in your brewing life, I strongly suggest you purchase home brew software so you can accurately write and tweak recipes to see what the changes do.

I started right off doing all grain, building my own crusher, writing my own recipes and buying ingredients in bulk, but I sure as hell wouldn't have started growing, malting and roasting it, too.

You have much to read and learn about, so very much.

Read this about 50 times:

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Introduction

And read everything you can on this Forum. Search for topics of interest, and look through the Brewing 'Wiki' linked from the top of the page.

No one can tell you all you need to know, you're gonna have to go find it, but when you have questions, ask, but be advised that they have probably been asked and answered several times so do a search first, or you'll hear it.

Thanks for the tips. And I will take heed about asking redundant questions. Today is my first day embarking on compiling info and doing research and perhaps I was a bit excited when I made my first post.

I knew I was in for a big project and anxious to see it through. Thanks again and I'll look into that link you provided and brewing software as well. Thankfully I have a strong background in Chem and my partner is an aerospace engineer, so the scientific aspects of the project are right up our alley.

Thanks again and I'm thrilled to be a part of this community.