How does my recipe look?

[Josh42801]

I'm building my next recipe and was wondering what your thoughts are? I'm going for an experimental low IBU imperial apricot wheat ale
All Grain, 5 gallon batch.
6lb western white wheat
5lb German pilsner malt
3lb Crystal 20
2lb Crystal 40
1lb rolled Oates

2oz Perle hops at 15 mins

2 packs Fermentis k-97

7 whole pitted apricots pasteurized and added to primary

 

[doug293cz]

Way too much crystal malt. I'd cut it in half. What's your target OG?

Brew on

 

[Josh42801]

Thank you, I was shooting for an OG of around 1.070 I make a orange wheat ale that's around 5% ABV and I use 6 lbs of wheat and 5 lbs of crystal 40 as well as 1lbs rolled oates and I'm fond of the flavor and color. What's your reasoning for cutting the crystal percentage?

 

[AlexKay]

I agree on cutting back on the crystal — you want this to be crisp, not overly sweet. But if you’ve done similar before and like it, then you like it!

I don’t think you’ll notice any difference between 20, 40, or split 20/40. Doesn’t do any harm to split it. If you want to try something new, drop both in favor of a Caravienne.

I’m guessing this will come across more as a hint of apricot than anything else. If you’re going to pasteurize the fruit, you might consider using fruit juice instead of whole fruit. Or try baby food. (Check that there are no additives.)

K97 is great when it’s good, but for reasons unknown to me makes tart beer some of the time. That may be ok in this case! If you want to avoid that, Lallemand Koln is a great alternative.

It can work really well if you can find hops that have synergy with your fruit. I get a lot of apricot off of Nectaron.

 

[doug293cz]

I agree with Alex, if you have made beers with this much crystal before, and you like them, then you should make what you like.

As a general rule, most brewers try to keep crystal malts below about 15% of the malt bill to avoid excessive or cloying sweetness.

Brew on

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

FWIW, I've brewed (and enjoyed) a"clone" recipe for Pete's Wicked Ale (basically a brown-colored ale with ~ 20% C60 and 3% Chocolate).

wondering what your thoughts are?

Given the original grain bill (which you enjoyed)

• 6# wheat, 5# crystal 40, 1# oats

"imperial"-izing to

• 6# wheat, 5# pilsner, 5# crystal 20/40, 1# oats

is a reasonable next step for moving forward.

You didn't mention bittering hops or IBUs. You may want to add some IBUs to offset the additional ABV.