review my recipe?

CornyKegs 728
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First off I would like to state as a disclaimer that there might be glaring oversights with this recipe. I wrote it based on my knowledge of recipe-creating up to this point. And thanks a ton to whoever reads this and gives their two cents.

Strawberry Wheat - Partial Mash - 5 gal
5 lbs Wheat DME
1.35 lbs Wheat Malt
1 lb Flaked Wheat
1 lb Vienna Malt
.5 lb Honey Malt
.75 oz Cascade Hops @5
WLP001 California Ale Yeast
~7.5 lbs fresh strawberries @ secondary
OG - 1.048
FG - 1.011

Any thoughts, critiques, comments, etc that you have is greatly appreciated.

And can someone tell me why BeerSmith is giving me an estimated ABV of .6%?
 
I've never used fresh fruit before, but I'm not sure it's wise to put fresh strawberries in the secondary. You may want to consider fruit extract or fruit puree, both of which are fully sterilized and safe to add to the secondary.
 
they'll be crushed, frozen, and then pasteurized before being added.

maybe "fresh" was the wrong word. :p
 
I think you meant hops 60, not hops @5?

I think it looks good to me. Keep in mind that you will get some fermentation from the glucose in the strawberries. You may want to leave some headspace in your secondary.

Also, which ABV are your reading on beersmith, the anticipated % based on anticipated SG & FG, or the actual % based on entered SG & FG?
 
I'm not a recipe formulation expert, but I'll tell you what stands out here to me. first, is this a partial mash recipe? because all of your grains need to be mashed (steeping won't work). second, cascade hops are great for APA's and IPA's but their pungent marijuana/citrus tang might conflict with the strawberry thing you're working on. finally, 7.5 lbs of strawberries seems like a huge amount to me, but I have never used fruit in a beer before so I have no baseline other than what I've read around here......good luck.
 
No I meant 5. I read in 'designing great beers' that one small hop addition is good for fruit beers, and it should be aroma hops in the last 10 minutes. but then i read online that the only hop addition should be one small bittering hop addition at 60. i decided to trust the book, was i wrong?

style ABV: 3.7-5.5%
actual ABV: .6%
 
size said:
No I meant 5. I read in 'designing great beers' that one small hop addition is good for fruit beers, and it should be aroma hops in the last 10 minutes. but then i read online that the only hop addition should be one small bittering hop addition at 60. i decided to trust the book, was i wrong?

style ABV: 3.7-5.5%
actual ABV: .6%
Click to expand...

Well, that is going to give you a hearty 1 IBU. It would taste way too sweet with a bunch of hop flavor. Go with 60 minutes.

Not exactly sure why BeerSmith is giving you troubles. Try inputting the expected SG&FG into the spot where you can put the actual SG&FG in.
 
You need some base malt in the mash for the starches to be converted to sugar. You can get away with as little as 40% base malt if it has a lot of diastatic power. I think you should add 2# of pilsner malt and drop to 4# wheat DME to hit a similar gravity and convert your mash.
 
size said:
I read in 'designing great beers' that one small hop addition is good for fruit beers, and it should be aroma hops in the last 10 minutes.
Click to expand...

I would think the opposite. You really don't want any hop flavor or aroma in a fruit beer. A 60 min. bittering addition will add balance while contributing no flavor/aroma, thus allowing the fruit flavor to dominate.
 
bbrim said:
You need some base malt in the mash for the starches to be converted to sugar. You can get away with as little as 40% base malt if it has a lot of diastatic power. I think you should add 2# of pilsner malt and drop to 4# wheat DME to hit a similar gravity and convert your mash.
Click to expand...

I thought wheat has plenty of diastatic power, as does the Vienna malt.
 
I agree that you want those hops at the front of the boil. You need some bitterness, otherwise it will be way too sweet, almost unpleasantly so, I would imagine. And I also second that you probably want to avoid the Cascade flavor and aroma that you're going to get from the 5 minute addition if you want to highlight the strawberries.

Also, you might want to reconsider your yeast. The 001 is a great yeast, but it is super clean. You will get some wheat flavor from the wheat DME and the wheat malt, but that's about it. You won't get any of the other wheat flavors, aromas or phenols, those all come from the yeast. So, if you want some traditional (American) wheat beer flavors, I would say use an American Wheat beer yeast, and I would ferment a bit higher than usual, or at least ramp your temperature up for the second half of the ferment, get some good phenols going. Maybe 67, 68 degrees for the finish. Maybe.
 
Okay so I'll switch to a bittering hop at 60, probably a good call.

Regarding the mash: wouldn't the wheat malt have enough diastatic power to convert the rest? Vienna has enough to convert it's own, so that should help. Not sure about honey malt.

And the yeast, I'll look into depending on availability.
 
oberon567 said:
I agree that you want those hops at the front of the boil. You need some bitterness, otherwise it will be way too sweet, almost unpleasantly so, I would imagine. And I also second that you probably want to avoid the Cascade flavor and aroma that you're going to get from the 5 minute addition if you want to highlight the strawberries.

Also, you might want to reconsider your yeast. The 001 is a great yeast, but it is super clean. You will get some wheat flavor from the wheat DME and the wheat malt, but that's about it. You won't get any of the other wheat flavors, aromas or phenols, those all come from the yeast. So, if you want some traditional (American) wheat beer flavors, I would say use an American Wheat beer yeast, and I would ferment a bit higher than usual, or at least ramp your temperature up for the second half of the ferment, get some good phenols going. Maybe 67, 68 degrees for the finish. Maybe.
Click to expand...

I used Wyeast 3068 on my cherry wheat and really liked it. The esters were very nice, but the phenols were a little light. It fermented a little warmer than I hoped, 68-70. I'll definitely use it again and try to keep it a little cooler a first.
 
american wheat ales like to ferment a little warmer... work those yeasts and get all of those nice phenols and flavor out of them. it depends on the yeast, they will give you different stuff at different temps. i have actually only brewed one such wheat beer so my knowledge here is all theoretical and not actually lived experience... but they dont mind it a little warm, and i always feel safer starting a little lower and then ramping it up as opposed to trying to tame it down after starting high. so start at 62, 63 and ending around 68 seems like a good idea. but starting and staying at 68 the whole time wouldnt hurt either, and if you really liked the result i wouldnt start cooler, i would do the same thing! (or, i suppose, if you brew the same recipe, start lower and then ramp it up, and see how it changes the result)
 
I looked it up and I think you're right about the wheat, as far as malted wheat having enough to convert itself. You may or may not get full conversion of the flaked wheat. The other issue with wheat is the difficulty in sparging as it has no husk. If you are using a bag you should be fine. If it were me I'd throw a pound of pilsner malt in just to be safe. Vienna does have enough to take care of itself but the honey does not. I think you're on the road to a good beer. If you decide to stick with your malt bill I think it would be good to use an iodine test to check starch conversion. Then you can be sure everything happened according to plan. Best of luck to you.
 
damn, much appreciated guys. this forum never ceases to amaze. i think what i'll do, bbrim, is just take out some DME and add more wheat malt. since i'm not familiar with iodine tests (yet), this way i won't bump up the gravity AND i'll make sure to get the full starch conversion.

thanks a bunch guys, this forum never ceases to amaze me.
 
Coming to this a bit late, but here are my thoughts, in no particular order.

Malted wheat, depending on the maltster, often has a higher diastatic power than 2-row pale malt. Don't worry at all about conversion.

Definitely make one bittering addition of hops. Shoot for a relatively low IBU. You want just enough bitterness to balance the beer without fruit. Fruit add a completely different set of flavor parameters. Were I you, I'd brew the beer without fruit first, removing the one variable: The fruit ingredient. Use the same malts, yeast, etc. that you plan to use in your fruit beer. If that beer tastes fine, add your fruit to the next batch.

Get to know your fruit. Recognize the flavor-wheel constituents and recognize how they'll impact the flavors of the beer. Recognize how they'll meld - or not - in the fruited beer.

I'd delete the honey malt.

Cheers!

Bob
 

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