Wheat Extract to All Grain?

Ok, I brewed up a batch of Wildflower Wheat that I got out of "Extreme Brewing" a while ago, and my SWMBO loved it, but we are almost out now Since I just made the jump to all grain brewing I would like to brew it again, but an all grain version

The recipe called for 6.6Lbs of Wheat DME with 1 oz of Vanguard hops, 1lb of honey, and 2oz of chamomile which was steeped for the whole 60 min of the boil.

OG = 1.057
FG = 1.015

Converting it in BeerSmith gave me 6.8Lbs of "Pale Malt(2 Row)" US, and 4.27Lbs of "Wheat Malt, Ger(2.0 Srm)" assuming 70% efficiency.

Does this sound right? This is my first time using the convert feature of BeerSmith and I just want to double check before brewing this one up.

It depends on which brand of wheat extract you use, but most have a proportion of 65% barley, 35% wheat. Or maybe 55% barley, 45% wheat. Either way, your conversion looks pretty good.

It was LD Carlsons Bavarian Wheat.

dummkauf said:

It was LD Carlsons Bavarian Wheat.

Click to expand...

Well, just a quick search showed it was 65% barley/35% wheat so that would give you about the same beer. You could through a big handfull of rice hulls in the mash if you want- I don't make wheat beers often but I think they are more "sticky" in the mash and sparge.

Also, just noticed that the conversion didn't include any mash info?

I'm assuming I mash for 60 min, but at what temp?

YooperBrew said:

Well, just a quick search showed it was 65% barley/35% wheat so that would give you about the same beer. You could through a big handfull of rice hulls in the mash if you want- I don't make wheat beers often but I think they are more "sticky" in the mash and sparge.

Click to expand...

What do the rice hulls do?

Wheat doesn't have any hulls so they'll clump together and stop the flow or wort. Adding rice hulls helps to keep the wheat from clogging/settling.

I would shoot for 152 or so for your mash. You'll end up with great wheat thats smooth and crisp. I made wheat with a 50/50 mixture, and it was very flavorful with heavy body, and wished I mashed a little lower, say in the 150 range.

Ok, so I just throw in a big handful as Yooper advised, or is a more precise measurement required?

DarkNoonBrewer said:

I would shoot for 152 or so for your mash. You'll end up with great wheat thats smooth and crisp. I made wheat with a 50/50 mixture, and it was very flavorful with heavy body, and wished I mashed a little lower, say in the 150 range.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, the pressures on since the last one was fantastic!!! Got to live up to the hype with this one

Oh and since I'm batch sparging, I'm assuming the sparge water shoult be up around 165-168? or should that be lower as well?

By the time you get to sparge, all the activity has taken place, and the flavor profile due to the type of sugar being created can no longer be effected. I would say shoot for your 165-168 sparge temp. I fly sparge at 174. I say, the hotter the better, because you can get more heat to the BK. Obviously, stay below whatever "school of thought max sparge temperature" that makes you feel comfortable.

dummkauf said:

Ok, so I just throw in a big handful as Yooper advised, or is a more precise measurement required?

Click to expand...

Depends on how big your hands are :cross:
Yep a couple good hands full of rice hulls will save you from dealing with a stuck mash.

Ok, just brewed this up and it's WAY darker than beerSmith predicted and my last batch. I bought Cara Wheat from my LHBS, and I'm thinking that is a darker wheat than the recipe called for. They had a bunch of wheat to choose from and I wasn't sure what to get, the recipe said "Wheat Malt, Ger" but I couldn't find anything named that so I just bought that Cara Wheat?

I'm thinking I should've gotten a different wheat, any ideas what it would have been called at the brew shop, and any ideas on what this will do to the brew?

Oh, the selections I have to choose from are here: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/homebrewing-ingredients/grains/wheat-rye-malt.html

If you didnt want any color, then you should have used pale wheat. All the pale grain has little to no color.

Check out this malt chart.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart

This is new to me, but it seems pretty straight forward. SRM is a scale used to determine darkness or color (I maybe slightly incorrect on this). But, as you can see, cara wheat is near the bottom when things start to look dark. You should have a great tasting beer though. Congrats on your brew!

Never used carawheat. to answer your question: I like red wheat for my hefe's.

just call it a limited edition Dunkelweizen !

DarkNoonBrewer said:

If you didnt want any color, then you should have used pale wheat. All the pale grain has little to no color.

Check out this malt chart.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart

This is new to me, but it seems pretty straight forward. SRM is a scale used to determine darkness or color (I maybe slightly incorrect on this). But, as you can see, cara wheat is near the bottom when things start to look dark. You should have a great tasting beer though. Congrats on your brew!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, I'm hoping it will be good, I missed my OG a bit and only got a 54% efficiency(hit 70% last batch). Just curious if this was from mashing at 150F(meant to hit 152F), or maybe the wheat needs to be milled on a different setting than the 2-Row?

Ok, been doing some more research, just realized I should have rinsed my rise hulls before adding them. Could that have thrown my efficiency off that much by having the rice hulls absorbing liquid? I used 2 handfuls which weighed in at 0.2Lbs, I also just realized I didn't include Rice Hulls in BeerSmith

The rice hulls would not have affected your efficiency. CaraWheat is a wheat malt that has already been converted (starch to sugar) via kilning and doesn't even really need mashing, just steeping. Similar to Crystal, Carafa, CaraMunich, etc... Unfortunately, the sugars present in CaraWheat are not entirely fermentable. You may have a major problem on your hands. You need to use base malts when brewing. CaraWheat should be used in moderation to add color and flavor.

Read this:
http://www.brew365.com/malt_carawheat.php

By the way, I'm brewing a Schneider Weiss clone this weekend. Here is the recipe if you're interested. This is by far my favorite wheat beer, but I haven't brewed this yet:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 51.61 %
5.50 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 47.31 %
0.13 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 1.08 %
0.50 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (70 min) Hops 23.2 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] (15 min) Hops 6.4 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat

dummkauf said:

Ok, just brewed this up and it's WAY darker than beerSmith predicted and my last batch. I bought Cara Wheat from my LHBS, and I'm thinking that is a darker wheat than the recipe called for. They had a bunch of wheat to choose from and I wasn't sure what to get, the recipe said "Wheat Malt, Ger" but I couldn't find anything named that so I just bought that Cara Wheat?

I'm thinking I should've gotten a different wheat, any ideas what it would have been called at the brew shop, and any ideas on what this will do to the brew?

Oh, the selections I have to choose from are here: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/homebrewing-ingredients/grains/wheat-rye-malt.html

Click to expand...

As was mentioned, "cara" means the malt is a crystal malt. You needed wheat malt, not carawheat. Crystal malts aren't basemalts, they are just used for color and sweetening. That's quite a boat load of crystal malts, so it won't be what you had in mind.

dummkauf said:

Ok, been doing some more research, just realized I should have rinsed my rise hulls before adding them. Could that have thrown my efficiency off that much by having the rice hulls absorbing liquid? I used 2 handfuls which weighed in at 0.2Lbs, I also just realized I didn't include Rice Hulls in BeerSmith

Click to expand...

Nah, I never rinse my rice hulls. They just get tossed in the mash.

Well, at least I can truly say that this is "My" first recipe I created

At this point I guess I'll just wait and see what happens.

Well if fermented down to 1.009. Just pulled the first hydro sample and think I'll be bottling it up this weekend. Tastes OK, though I don't know if I would necessarily call it a wheat. We'll see what happens once it's all carbed up.

Thanks again for all the input from everyone throughout this brew day!