Good American wheat recipe?

I'm about to brew my next batch, an American wheat, and being that I'm a newbie I figured it might be wise to get some different perspectives on my recipe before I blow my coin. I pretty much made it up myself from recipes and info I've gathered over the last few weeks.

3/4lb. crystal 20l
3/4lb. American wheat
2lbs. wheat DME
3lbs. light DME
1lb. Honey
1/2oz. Horizon pellets (60min)
1/2oz. Tettnanger pellets (20min)
1/2oz. Tettnanger pellets (5min)

I'm going for a refreshing, well balanced summer brew. Does this fit the bill?
When should I add the honey? What type of yeast should I use?

HOOTER said:

I'm about to brew my next batch, an American wheat, and being that I'm a newbie I figured it might be wise to get some different perspectives on my recipe before I blow my coin. I pretty much made it up myself from recipes and info I've gathered over the last few weeks.

3/4lb. crystal 20l
3/4lb. American wheat
2lbs. wheat DME
3lbs. light DME
1lb. Honey
1/2oz. Horizon pellets (60min)
1/2oz. Tettnanger pellets (20min)
1/2oz. Tettnanger pellets (5min)

I'm going for a refreshing, well balanced summer brew. Does this fit the bill?
When should I add the honey? What type of yeast should I use?

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I cant help you with the honey because I know nothing about and hate the taste of it. However the recipe part If it were me I wouldn't steep the wheat and use more Wheat DME.

Wheat DME is already 55% wheat, 45% pale malt. Not sure if you knew this? If you do 2lb wheat DME and 3lb pale DME, you are going to have a beer that is about 80% pale malt, as opposed to wheat...

You should just use ~6lb of Wheat DME (you'll have a 55% wheat, 45% pale malt beer), the Crystal 20L, and if you want to add the honey thats fine. It can be added to the boil or near the end of the boil if you want more utilization out of your hops. Steeping the wheat malt isn't going to do much for you, so skip it, as noted.

For yeast, I'd suggest using a wheat yeast for a little complexity. There is american hefeweizen yeast which will add some banana/clove but not near as much as german yeasts if fermented low. Or another popular choice is Wyeast 1010, American Wheat...

YEAST STRAIN: 1010 | American Wheat™

A dry fermenting, true top cropping yeast which produces a dry, slightly tart, crisp beer. Ideal for beers where a low ester profile is desirable.

Flocculation: Low
Attenuation: 74-78%
Temperature Range: 58-74° F (14-23° C)
Alcohol Tolerance: approximately 10% ABV

RoaringBrewer said:

and if you want to add the honey thats fine. It can be added to the boil or near the end of the boil if you want more utilization out of your hops. Steeping the wheat malt isn't going to do much for you, so skip it, as noted.

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Would the 1lb. of honey do much for me or would it be better to skip it? If I eliminate the wheat malt should I increase the crystal 20, replace it with something else, or just stick to 1/2lb. crystal 20 for steeping?

try something more like this:

½ lbs Crystal 20L
5 lbs Wheat DME
1lb. Honey
1/2oz. Horizon pellets (60min)
1/2oz. Tettnanger pellets (20min)
1/2oz. Tettnanger pellets (5min)

add the honey at flameout. other than that, it looks pretty good. tettnanger is what i use in my american wheat...but for bittering. i use saaz for flavor and aroma, really mellows it out. should be pretty good with the horizon and tet, too.

what yeast are you using? i go with WLP300 in my american wheat and just ferment at low temperatures to avoid too much banana.

HOOTER said:

Would the 1lb. of honey do much for me or would it be better to skip it? If I eliminate the wheat malt should I increase the crystal 20, replace it with something else, or just stick to 1/2lb. crystal 20 for steeping?

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ok I plugged your recipe into beersmith with 6# Wheat DME .5# c20 and 1# Honey your sitting at 1.062 O.G. about a 6%abv beer and your color is at 8.9 Srm which is quite a bit darker than style guidlines.

HOOTER said:

Would the 1lb. of honey do much for me or would it be better to skip it? If I eliminate the wheat malt should I increase the crystal 20, replace it with something else, or just stick to 1/2lb. crystal 20 for steeping?

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The honey will ferment out pretty dry, so look at it as a 1% alcohol boost without any boost in body or much change in flavor. If you want to use it great, if not, you could skip it or replace it with another lb. of DME. Honey also ferments out slowly, just thought I should mention...

I would not replace the 3/4lb of wheat malt with more crystal 20... Generally speaking, > 1lb of crystal malts is not necessary... 1/2lb - 3/4lb or the 20 should do just fine, IMO.

RICLARK said:

ok I plugged your recipe into beersmith with 6# Wheat DME .5# c20 and 1# Honey your sitting at 1.062 O.G. about a 6%abv beer and your color is at 8.9 Srm which is quite a bit darker than style guidlines.

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Normally I plug stuff into beersmith too, but thanks for taking that on Ric. With this information, I would drop the 1# honey... get back into the 1.050-1.052 range...

Not much you can do about the color since you are using extract that may carmelize a bit and darken. Unless you want to do late extract addition. Using Crystal 10L might help, but not all that much compared to 20L...

EDIT: This leaves you with the following:

6lbs. wheat LME or 5lb. wheat DME
1/2lb. Crsytal 10L or 20L
1/2oz. Horizon pellets (60min)
1/2oz. Tettnanger pellets (20min)
1/2oz. Tettnanger pellets (5min)
Wyeast 1010 or other wheat yeast

Sometimes simpler, is better!

Excellent advice. Thanks all! I'm off to the home brew shop.

This board rocks!:rockin:

If you're looking for honey flavor, I would add it either in the secondary or after vigorous fermentation starts slowing in the primary. The vigorous part of the fermentation will scrub a lot of the flavor and aroma out through the airlock. If you're just looking for some additional alcohol, then adding at the end of the boil is fine. Other than that, it looks like you've got a tasty brew there.

RoaringBrewer said:

Sometimes simpler, is better!

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In my experience, it's almost ALWAYS better

What about using Honey Malt instead of honey to get the honey flavor?

i have never had a real good experience with honey malt...it never tasted like honey.

besides, you don't want honey flavor in your wheat, anyway. a slight bit from the real honey might be ok, but it's mostly to make it drier. otherwise, if you want realy honey, make a mead.

trust me.

I picked up the ingredients today and will be brewing tomorrow. I took the advice given and went with this recipe:

3/4 lb. Crystal 20L
6 lbs. Wheat DME
1 oz. Tettnanger pellets
1 oz. Saaz pellets
Nottingham ale yeast

As advised, I kept it simple and I'm sure the results will be much better than they would have been with my original recipe. Thanks all.

I think the Notty yeast will be just fine. I did a wheat with US 05 and really liked it. I have also taken Jamil's advice and used a Kolsch yeast. That is quite good as well.