Wheat Beer Recipe Suggestions

I'm planning on brewing this coming weekend and I know I'll be doing another pale ale recipe, but I also want to do a wheat beer as well. I've been looking at the Citrus Weizen recipe, but it seems like it's received mixed reviews. I've put together a recipe of my own from what I've seen on the Sierra Nevada site, and also from other recipes. Can you guys check this out and let me know if I should add/change anything? Thanks!

American Wheat Beer:
Starting Volume: 6.25 (Full Boil) Ending Volume: 5.5

1 lbs. White Wheat Malt (steeping)
6.5 lbs. Alexanders Wheat Liquid
.75 oz. Perle (Whole, 8.25 %AA) boiled 60 min.
.75 oz. Spalt Spalter (Whole, 4.75 %AA) boiled 15 min.
Yeast : Wyeast 1010 American Wheat

Optional: Zest of 4 oranges, 2 Lemons added to boil for 10 min.

OG: 1.043 FG: 1.009
Color: 5.33 SRM
IBU: 26.3
ABV: 4.4%


What say ye???

forgot a zero on your FG

Arneba28 said:

forgot a zero on your FG

Click to expand...

Whoops! Fixed!

interesting. that's less wheat than i'm used to seeing in a wheat beer.

still, looks tasty!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the extracts already part wheat and part pale? I know that was the case for my honey wheat last summer. If it's the same with the liquid, I would just use all "wheat" extract. And I would also cut down the second hop addition.....

yeah, that's what i was trying to hint at.

apparently alexander's wheat extract is 50/50 wheat and barley, so this grain bill would be about 1/4 wheat. not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

i'm still pretty new to wheat beers as well, but the hefeweizen i've got going right now has 100 percent wheat extract and a lot of recipes i've seen have maybe a pound or two of pale thrown in.

yeah, that's just a touch of wheat.
i think american wheats are usually around 50/50 when it comes to the total grain bill and german wheats can have as much as 70%.

white wheat needs to be mashed too, though i think that shouldn't stop people from steeping something for flavor.
i would do 2 cans of alexander's wheat, be it the 3 or 4 gallon can.
i like hoppy wheat beers, so id leave the hop additions alone (im going to make an amarillo or centennial hopped summer wheat beer soon).

Saint Arnould said:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the extracts already part wheat and part pale? I know that was the case for my honey wheat last summer. If it's the same with the liquid, I would just use all "wheat" extract. And I would also cut down the second hop addition.....

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Ah...good info, I wasn't aware of that. So I suppose I should just adjust this recipe to 6# Alexanders Wheat. I was really going for a 50/50 wheat/2-row or as close as I could get. What about the steeping grains...should I stick with the White Wheat Malt or add something else like Crystal 20L?

yeah, i'd go with something more like this myself:

6 lbs Wheat LME
0.75 lbs White Wheat
0.25 lbs 2-Row

the wheat has some diastic power, but not enough. "mash" the white wheat and 2-row in a small amount of water (1/2 gallon or so) for 30 minutes, then add to your boiling pot with more water and continue as normal.

not sure what you mean by zest of oranges, but i'd skip the lemon altogether.

hops additions look good...although i haven't used those in a wheat myself

DeathBrewer said:

yeah, i'd go with something more like this myself:

6 lbs Wheat LME
0.75 lbs White Wheat
0.25 lbs 2-Row

the wheat has some diastic power, but not enough. "mash" the white wheat and 2-row in a small amount of water (1/2 gallon or so) for 30 minutes, then add to your boiling pot with more water and continue as normal.

not sure what you mean by zest of oranges, but i'd skip the lemon altogether.

hops additions look good...although i haven't used those in a wheat myself

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I will skip the lemons...I've heard they can sometimes add an bitter off taste. The zest of the oranges is just the outside on the peel, and mostly intended for a citrusy aroma although thats just what I hear. The hops I mention were the ones listed on the Sierra Nevada Wheat Beer page here. I'm new at this so I just want to make some good solid beers, then start tweaking the recipes my second or third time around. I may just leave out the oranges altogether this time.

I have added lemon zest to a wheat beer that I did and the flavor is very suddle but pleasant. I used a hefe yeast and didn't want to overpower the flavor of the yeast itself.

Seconded. With the super simple hefe I made last summer I added the zest of two lemons with about 5 min left in the boil and it did give it a nice citrusy aroma. That batch went quick.

I'd go with straight wheat malt extract - it's already 50-50, if I recall. I'm wary of adding zest et cetera to beer. You can always get citrus from hops if you pick your varieties well. I made a wheat beer recently with Kölsch yeast as per the Jamil show, and it was excellent.

Thanks for the input everyone, I really appreciate it. I went to the LHBS and got my ingredients for the recipe, and will be brewing it up after some BBQ cheesburgers later tonight! Below is my final recipe:

6.5# Alexander's Wheat LME
Mini Mash: 1lb White Wheat Malt, 1lb 2-row (155F for 60m)
.5 oz. Spalt Spalter (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 60 min
1.0 oz. Perle (Whole, 8.25 %AA) boiled 30 min
Yeast: Wyeast American Wheat 1010
Peels from 4 mandarin orange peels boiled 60min.


I was going to leave out the orange peels, but on my trip to the LHBS I ran into a home brew club member and asked him about it. He said he just did a brew with mandarin orange peels that added a nice aroma to the beer. Apparently, mandarins are better because their peels aren't quite as thick and contain less acid than oranges or lemons. I'll give it a shot and see what happens! :rockin:

I'm actually doin a blubery wheat tomorrow...I too spent some time tring to find a good recipe and decided to take a little from here & there. I also got some advice from my friend who is a chef about the blue berries. I have read that a few people had a diff. time getting a good enough blue berry flavor out of the beer. I'm going to try boiling them down to a almost carmelized state and add to boiling wort for last 15mins I think. Then add to fermenter & secondary. See what happens.

But anyways...here's the recipe I came up with:

.5# CaraPils (Steeped 30mins @ 160f)
.5# Crystal 10 (steeped 30mins @ 160f)
6# Wheat DME (they didn't have LME)
.5 oz Sterling @ 60 mins - 4.9% AA
.5 oz Hallertau @ 60 mins - 3.1% AA
.5 oz Sterlling @ 45 mins - 4.9% AA
.5 oz hallertau @ 45 mins - 3.1% AA
.5 oz Saaz @ 30 mins - 3.4% AA
.5 oz Saaz @ 15 mins - 3.4% AA
Pre-Boiled Blueberries (maybe 2-4 oz) added to wort @ 15 mins
Irish Moss @ 10 mins
wyeast 1056

I was going to use 3# of LME but my buddy at the HBS said it might make the (taste) off? I think this will be a good one.

Off Topic: Just ordered even more Rhizomes...this time from Freshops!

Kug
:rockin:

Just got done brewing a hefe a few hours ago. Kept it simple.

.5 lb. White Wheat
.5 lb. Flaked Wheat
2 oz. Caravienne

steeped for 30 mins @ 160.

2 lbs. Bavarian Wheat SME
1 oz. Hallertau (4.2% AA) (60 min)
4 lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME (20 min)
.5 oz. Cascade (4.9% AA) (5 min)

Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan

jvh261 said:

Just got done brewing a hefe a few hours ago. Kept it simple.

.5 lb. White Wheat
.5 lb. Flaked Wheat
2 oz. Caravienne

steeped for 30 mins @ 160.

2 lbs. Bavarian Wheat SME
1 oz. Hallertau (4.2% AA) (60 min)
4 lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME (20 min)
.5 oz. Cascade (4.9% AA) (5 min)

Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan

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Please let us know how the Wyeast 3068 works out for ya...cause I was curious about that one but was unsure how it would work out for the "American" style I was going for.

I am also wondering about the Flaked & White Wheat...I thought they should be Mashed opposed to steeping?

Kug

Yeah, they actually should be mashed. I should've just used a lb of malted wheat. I kinda halfassed it but it didn't really work out. I think I'll still have an ok brew though.

The 3068 is definitely going to give me the characteristics of a German style. Should be heavy on the banana/clove. I'm planning on doing a dunkel in a few weeks and I'll just put it right on top of this hefe yeast.