First Custom Homebrew Recipe - Any Help Appreciated

hey everyone... first let me say that while i only recently registered and this is my first post, i genuinely appreciate all the advice and insight i've gotten reading this board over the past few months.

i've done quite a few all extract brews at a BOP place near my house (some clones and some of the place's original recipes) but i've caught the homebrewing bug and want to build some myself now... i'm almost done putting together a simple home setup and working out my first recipe, i have a question or two about how to calculate things properly and execute it though...

i'd like to do an american wheat that still retains some spicyness and german flavor, but not too much banana .. i made this recipe using components of troegs dremweaver and a handful of other wheat recipes... my measurements are guesses as im not sure how to calculate OG and IBUs.. but im aiming at a ~4.5% ABV and ~15 IBUs... if you can help me with that or flag me anywhere im going wrong here id appreciate it:

volume: 5 gallons
yeast: WLP380 Hefeweisen IV pitchable liquid AA: 73-80%
specialty grain: carahell .5lb 30 minute steep
OG: ???
malts:
1. northern brewer wheat (65% wheat 35% pale) liquid (6.0lb?)
hops:
1. saaz (1.5oz?) 60 minutes
2. saaz (.5oz?) 30 minutes
3. saaz (.5oz?) 0 minutes
IBU ???
primary ferment: ??? days at 68F
secondary ferment: none


questions:

1. how to build back my ingredient measurements from a desired ~4.5% ABV
2. how do i calculate IBUs to be ~15
3. should i throw all the extract in at the beginning, or 1/2 then 1/2 at 15 mins (and if so do i need to adjust my bittering hops due to the change in gravity for most of the boil)
4. i only have a 5 gallon carboy (its th only thign that fits in my mini fridge), can i primary ferment in it with a blowoff tube or am i asking for trouble? (what im asking is how much head room do i need in there)
5. do i need a secondary? how long would you ferment this? do i need todo anything different about priming and bottling this since its a wheat and hefeweisen yeast?

thanks in advance for anyone who can chime in on any of these...

loose

Go to beersmith.com and download the evaluation version. You can create custom recipes and tweak then as you see fit.

When I was doing extract, I put half in at the beginning and the rest in the last 15 minutes.

If you primary in a 5 gallon carbooy you're going to need a blowoff for every style of beer that you do. Be prepared for a potential mess with a hefe in a 5 gal carboy.

Leave your hefe in primary for 2 weeks then bottle it. Wheat beers are cloudy and do not benefit much from secondary.

+1. Ferment in plastic if you can keep it cool enough. Wheat beers are messy; the ferment is pretty violent.

Cheers,

Bob

thanks kindly... im over here doing math but now i dont have to worry... this software is fantastic ...

loosey said:

questions:

1. how to build back my ingredient measurements from a desired ~4.5% ABV
2. how do i calculate IBUs to be ~15
3. should i throw all the extract in at the beginning, or 1/2 then 1/2 at 15 mins (and if so do i need to adjust my bittering hops due to the change in gravity for most of the boil)
4. i only have a 5 gallon carboy (its th only thign that fits in my mini fridge), can i primary ferment in it with a blowoff tube or am i asking for trouble? (what im asking is how much head room do i need in there)
5. do i need a secondary? how long would you ferment this? do i need todo anything different about priming and bottling this since its a wheat and hefeweisen yeast?

Click to expand...

1-2: Use software, as others have suggested.
3: It's up to you. Late extract addition mostly benefits color and hop utilization. In this kind of beer, the hop utilization side of it isn't that big a deal, you're only talking 15 IBUs, you might lose an IBU or two because of wort boil density, but nobody will really notice. Also, this only applies to partial boils, if you're doing a full boil, there's not really a benefit to late extract addition.
4: If it's what you got, it's what you got to use.
5: You seldom need a secondary. I'd ferment it til it's done And no, you don't have to do anything about priming and bottling because its a wheat beer.

Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 2.43 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (3 Gallon)

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.90 lb Wheat Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 60.00 %
2.10 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 32.31 %
0.50 lb Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain 7.69 % (sub for carahell in BS)
1.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 14.5 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (30 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen IV Ale (White Labs #WLP380) Yeast-Wheat



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.044 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.35 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 18.2 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 7.1 SRM Color: Color

thats what Beersmith gave me, looks good. Id try it. Maybe id add a tad more carafoam but thats me, I like fuller beers. Your IBUs would be about 18, so you just need to use a few less hops. If you want more ABV add more malt. Also im not sure(someone verify) if you use DME instead of LME you don't need to worry about the extract twang or worry as much about the beer getting to dark. Id say you got your recipe pretty good on though as I would round my Malts up to 4 Lb and 2.25 Lbs that would get you at right about 4.5% ABV and bring your IBU down to 17 or so. Also your IBUs depend on the Alpha rating of the hops, as you see mine are set at 4.00% if yours are 3.5% you will be spot on 15 IBUs.
Also I think 5 Gal buckets are actually closer to 7 Gal. if you top them off, so I wouldnt worry to much about the wort fitting in but you would probably need a blowoff depending on how warm you ferment at etc.