Help with first wheat beer

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 11, 2011

I'm going to make my first wheat beer this weekend. Does the wheat have enough diastatic power to convert itself or do I need to add some 2 row? I was thinking this:

8 lbs German Wheat Malt
1 lb Honey Malt
4 oz Crystal 10
8 ozCara-pils
And maybe 1 lb of honey

If the wheat can't convert itself then I will cut it back to 4 lbs and add 4 lbs of Pilsner. Any thoughts?

Pappers_ · Mar 11, 2011

Yes, wheat malt can be used as a base, in that it converts itself without needing other grains. But I've never made a nearly 100% wheat beer as you're suggesting. I usually have the wheat malt make up around 50% of the grain bill or less, like this recipe http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/WPA-Wheat-Pale-Ale.html

Benthic · Mar 11, 2011

Depends on what style he's brewing. If he's making a Hefe then he needs at least 50% wheat. Looks like he's at roughly 80%, which should be fine.

Jason, what are you brewing?

Brian

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 11, 2011

Brewing a Honey Wheat for lack of a better explanation. I guess if I don't add the honey extract though it will just be a plain ole wheat beer. Never really thought about a style. Not a heffe. Don't want the banan and clove. Just a nice quaffable "light" beer to drink.

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 11, 2011

Pappers, after looking at your recipe (thanks by the way) I guess this would be a Wheat Pale Ale?????

Pappers_ · Mar 11, 2011

Jason_Merritt said:
Brewing a Honey Wheat for lack of a better explanation. I guess if I don't add the honey extract though it will just be a plain ole wheat beer. Never really thought about a style. Not a heffe. Don't want the banan and clove. Just a nice quaffable "light" beer to drink.

For a nice american wheat, a light summer beer, I'd mix in 50% of some variety of barley malt.

Pappers_ · Mar 11, 2011

Jason_Merritt said:
Pappers, after looking at your recipe (thanks by the way) I guess this would be a Wheat Pale Ale?????

That was just me being silly. The thing with 'wheat' beers is there is such a variety of styles under that label. The german hefeweisen, the belgian witbier, the american wheat. But, even in the american wheat, you've got a huge variety of beers. Three Floyds Gumball Head, for example, has flavor similarities to an APA - I think its closer to that than a wheat beer like Goose Island's 312, which is very light and quaffable. The recipe I shared with you is more pale ale-ish, hence my tongue-in-cheek name WPA.

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 11, 2011

Pappers_ said:
That was just me being silly. The thing with 'wheat' beers is there is such a variety of styles under that label. The german hefeweisen, the belgian witbier, the american wheat. But, even in the american wheat, you've got a huge variety of beers. Three Floyds Gumball Head, for example, has flavor similarities to an APA - I think its closer to that than a wheat beer like Goose Island's 312, which is very light and quaffable. The recipe I shared with you is more pale ale-ish, hence my tongue-in-cheek name WPA.

I liked it though, albeit not a "real" style. And I really never gave much thought to style guidelines, I just put together a recipe that sounded good. Then a friend asked about the diastatic power and it made me post the question. So I don't know what it is, but I'm calling it Wild Wheat for now. I'll do a starch conversion test after the 90 minute mash just to be sure, but it sounds like I'll be good. Thanks for the responses.

deadscott · Mar 11, 2011

The only thing to watch out for is wheat has no husk which means you could end in a stuck sparge. You may want to through in some rice hulls to help out. I have pulled off a 70/30 wheat to pale malt but have always been a little afraid to go lower for that reason. Who knows the honey malt and crystal malts may provide enoguh to get the job done. Good luck. Hope it turns out well.

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 11, 2011

deadscott said:
The only thing to watch out for is wheat has no husk which means you could end in a stuck sparge. You may want to through in some rice hulls to help out. I have pulled off a 70/30 wheat to pale malt but have always been a little afraid to go lower for that reason. Who knows the honey malt and crystal malts may provide enoguh to get the job done. Good luck. Hope it turns out well.

I wondered about that. I've never used rice hulls. How much would would you recommend?

cockybitz · Mar 11, 2011

For that recipe, my novice self would suggest 2 lbs.

bannonb · Mar 11, 2011

Careful with that much honey. I've made a honey wheat with 1lb of honey and it was too "cloyingly" sweet. I later did it with 1/2 lb and it was still sweet, but not as bad.

Good luck.

rycov · Mar 11, 2011

Jason_Merritt said:
I wondered about that. I've never used rice hulls. How much would would you recommend?

i recently made an all wheat beer, i used one pound of rice hulls. no stuck sparge.

(should have seen me trying to explain it to my wife, "well honey, if i vorlauf to fast then i might get a stuck sparge." "wtf?")

Sawdustguy · Mar 11, 2011

Jason_Merritt said:
I'm going to make my first wheat beer this weekend. Does the wheat have enough diastatic power to convert itself or do I need to add some 2 row? I was thinking this:

8 lbs German Wheat Malt
1 lb Honey Malt
4 oz Crystal 10
8 ozCara-pils
And maybe 1 lb of honey

If the wheat can't convert itself then I will cut it back to 4 lbs and add 4 lbs of Pilsner. Any thoughts?

Where ever you got your Wheat Malt from should be able to provide you with a copy of the Malt Analysis sheet for the malt you purchased. The Diastatic Power can be pulled right off the sheet.

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 12, 2011

rycov said:
i recently made an all wheat beer, i used one pound of rice hulls. no stuck sparge.

(should have seen me trying to explain it to my wife, "well honey, if i vorlauf to fast then i might get a stuck sparge." "wtf?")

ha nice. I am going with 1 lb too. I've never used them before. One lb is a bunch! I would think it would be plenty.

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 12, 2011

bannonb said:
Careful with that much honey. I've made a honey wheat with 1lb of honey and it was too "cloyingly" sweet. I later did it with 1/2 lb and it was still sweet, but not as bad.

Good luck.

I did an extract honey wheat last year and used 3 lbs of honey and did not have any sweetness at all. My understanding is that real honey is added for fermentables and dryness, not sweet. For that I thought you added honey malt. Of course I could be wrong.

Pappers_ · Mar 12, 2011

Jason_Merritt said:
ha nice. I am going with 1 lb too. I've never used them before. One lb is a bunch! I would think it would be plenty.

Yes, rice hulls weigh almost nothing so its a big volume. I don't weigh them, just throw in a couple of handfuls when mashing in.

By the way, last night I found a large flip-top bottle of the WPA I told you about earlier in the thread - I thought I was out of it! Brewed it more than a year ago, wife and I enjoyed it last night, it was really good! Just a funny coincidence.

rycov · Mar 13, 2011

Jason_Merritt said:
ha nice. I am going with 1 lb too. I've never used them before. One lb is a bunch! I would think it would be plenty.

yeah. the bag was huge. i probably could have gotten away with less, but thats how much i ordered so i just used them all. i put them in the mashtun with warm/hot water to heat the tun and kinda rinse the hulls at the same time. also it heated the hulls to so i didnt loose any heat to them.

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 14, 2011

Well the brew day went fairly well. It was damn long though. 90 min mash and 90 min boil. I got 72% efficiency with all the wheat so I'm not disappointed. No stuck sparges. Ended up boiling off about 1/2 gal more than I thought I would so my OG was higher than I intended. I could have topped off and got it down but left it alone. I still got 5 gal into the fermenter. It is churning away at 68F right now. Can't wait to try it!

rycov · Mar 14, 2011

so did you end up using the rice hulls?

rycov · Mar 14, 2011

sorry, i just looked up a few posts and you already said you were going too. thats what i get for not reading

WildGingerBrewing · Mar 14, 2011

haha 1 lb. Seemed to work out well.

Poobah58 · Mar 14, 2011

bannonb said:
Careful with that much honey. I've made a honey wheat with 1lb of honey and it was too "cloyingly" sweet. I later did it with 1/2 lb and it was still sweet, but not as bad.
Good luck.

Honey will not make a beer sweet. It is too fermentable for that to happen. It will dry a beer out. Honey malt maybe but not honey.

rycov · Mar 14, 2011

yeah, i think the only way it would make it sweet would be if you added so much that as it fermented the yeast reach a point where they can't deal with the alcohol content anymore and you had leftover sugars. but you'd have to add a **** ton

Help with first wheat beer

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