Recipe Advice - wheat beer

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bernerbrau

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I have to wait a while for my next batch because at this point I basically have no discretionary income due to the amount of money I'm spending on this wedding.

However, my bride-to-be, who cut her teeth on standard fraternity-issue Bud Light and (dear God) Beast Light, and who I am painstakingly weaning off the stuff, still dislikes bitter, aromatic, and malty beers, so for my next batch I decided to go for a wheat beer.

I've pulled together this recipe from various ones on the internet. This will be my third batch so I'm still pretty green, but I have this rebel streak in me that wants to make everything "my own":

Boil volume: 6 gal
Top off: 2 gal
Goal volume: 6.5 gal

Steep, 30min @ 155, then Rinse @ 170

1# CaraPils
1# Malted Wheat

Boil

Extracts

8# Muntons Wheat DME (55%)

Hops - All NZ Pacific Hallertau Leaf, 5.3%

0.5 @60
0.25 @25
0.25 @5

Pitch: SafAle WB06 Dry Yeast, rehydrated

3 weeks primary
1c Light DME (boiled 20min) for priming
3 weeks conditioning

Goal OG: 1.054
Goal FG: 1.014
Goal ABV: 5.3%

Bitterness: 11
Color: 6

Any advice, suggestions, tweaks, red flags, etc. would be appreciated!!

I'm experimenting a bit with the specialty grains but I've read that the carapils and flaked wheat are good for flavor and head in wheat beers. Also this will be my first time priming with DME instead of sugar.

Also for this batch I'll be getting a hydrometer to monitor my gravity (I've decided not knowing my ABV is no fun!!) and I've read up on them on John Palmer's site among others, but I'm still not 100% on how they work, so can anyone point me to a good info page?

Sorry if I'm a bit noisy, I just like picking the brains of experts and veterans until I can reach a point where I have an opinion on stuff!
 
the last time i primed with Wheat DME (Briess) it didn't work out so well. took forever to finish and always left some residuals i didn't like.

I've also heard that some people disklike the WB06 yeast.

if you're looking for a more american style (i'm assuming, based on your flavor and aroma hops), you could just us Safale S-05 if you're stuck on dry yeast. otherwise WLP320 is the liquid american hefeweizen and my personal favorite is WLP300 if you want the german esters (banana/cloves)

flaked wheat and carapils have no enzymes and they should not be steeped. i'd suggest adding some malted wheat. malted wheat has the diastatic power to convert itself and the carapils. steep in a little less than a gallon of water at 155°F for 30 minutes, then add to the rest of your water for your boil. this is basically a very simple and easy partial mash.

other than that it looks good! :mug:
 
I did WB06 for my last one (bitter dark wheat -- not sure the category!) and when I sampled during the rack to secondary I actually kind of enjoyed the banana esters underneath the bitter hops... completely unlike anything I've ever had before but damn good!

Updating my recipe -- thanks!
 
glad to hear it. i've heard somewhat mixed reviews on the WB06 and i think it depends on the style you want. i need to try it myself so my opinion actually counts :D
 
Good advice on the steep, DeathB. I'd omit the grains altogether, myself, and go all-extract with this. But then I'm rather lazy. ;)

You're better off using a neutral yeast with this, like S-05 or Nottingham, given the "target audience". If she's used to blandness, it's probably not the best idea to go throwing lots of yeast esters at her.

Try her on a bottle of store-bought American wheat first. If she digs that, throw a Bavarian Hefweizen at her. If she survives, make the recipe as written. If not, sub S-05 for the WB yeast.

Cheers,

Bob
 
Oh she'll definitely drink american hefes. I'll have to remember to pick up maybe a Paulaner or a Franziskaner (but hopefully not one that's spiced to death like a witbier).

In fact I just picked up a 6-pack of porter that she really likes :drunk:

BTW she's my wife now. I wrote this a while ago.
 
I did WB06 for my last one (bitter dark wheat -- not sure the category!) and when I sampled during the rack to secondary I actually kind of enjoyed the banana esters underneath the bitter hops... completely unlike anything I've ever had before but damn good!

Updating my recipe -- thanks!

Its great to hear you had good experiences with this yeast. I am also a fan of wheat beer, and have several 11g packets of this yeast. I am wondering what you have done in particular to get the good results.

Did you control the temperature really well? or is it room temperature? How much of the yeast did you pitch? Did you aerate really well? etc...

I would really like to brew a weizenbock with this yeast, similar to an Aventinus. Its just that previous postings say this yeast is not good for high gravity brews.

Thanks for the advice. Cheers
 
I fermented at room temperature with the WB06 -- hydrated the packet in a half quart mason jar filled with preboiled, chilled water, then added about a tablespoon of DME as a yeast starter. Brought out the clove and banana esters very prominently. I wasn't *entirely* prepared for that but I had hopped it so well (against most of the advice on this board) that it all balanced out.
 
When I made my Muntons Wheat canned wheat beer with WB-06.... it smelled absolutely wonderful when I bottled it!!! I was blown away!

And when I sampled a couple beers only 3 days into being bottled, it was still amazingly wonderful! Reminded me of maybe a Paulaner taste.

But then a week into bottling, it kinda went sour or bitterish! Here I am now 2 weeks in the bottle and it is still not good.

As suggested, it may have been that I didn't use a sanitizer on the bottles. I will definately try it again and see. I also started a WLP300 version to compare to. I will give an update as things happen.
 
I have found that wheat beers have the shortest shelf-life of any beer I've brewed. I recently drank a Oktoberfest ale kit beer (first beer I ever made) that was 3 YEARS OLD, and it still tasted fine. I've made wheat beers that start to be funky after a month.
 
My last wheat beer was a hoppy dunkel (I called it Ipankelweiss for hopefully obvious reasons) and it was a huge hit with family, so it was finished in less than a month. So I couldn't say whether it would have gone bad.
 
WLP 320 has been lots of fun for me. It gave me my first "airlock jam" that made me switch to blowout tubes. I've made three batches with 320 and no complaints.

A few of my girlfriends don't like real beers and stick to Bud Light, Beast, and other stuff...much to my dismay. I'm making a strawberry-guava wheat to get them off that swill. Since I'm using juice concentrate, with the first ingredient being easily fermentable cane sugar, my ABV is around 9.5%!

If you don't add fruit, you're good to skip the secondary with wheats. The cloudy effect is part of the beer.

Sounds like you're getting your brewing legs under you. Keep brewing and have fun!


-May the Yeast be with you.
 
Geez, I'm gonna have to try a fruit wheat beer now.

The Hefeweizen got sidetracked in favor of a blonde biscuit and an imperial IPA, but it's still coming. I may have to get some frozen berries to toss into secondary when it comes time. Only question is how to maintain sanitiation, though I suppose you could soak them briefly in star san without too much ill effect. I bet a blackberry wheat would be damn near beergasmic.
 
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