Thoughts on American Dark Wheat recipe

[techprof]

I brewed this recipe over the weekend and it smelled great, looking to do a simple dark hoppy wheat beer. Thoughts?


10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) 69.6 %
2 lbs Wheat Malt 13.9 %
1 lbs 5.8 oz Wheat, Flaked 9.5 %
1 lbs Carafa I 7.0 %
2.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - First Wort 90 min
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min
2.0 pkg Safbrew Wheat (DCL/Fermentis #WB-06) [50.28 ml]

Mash temp 152f, 60 minutes, batch sparged. 7.25g collected OG=1.049, Final 5.25g FG=1.070

 

[CadillacAndy]

What kind of flavors are you expecting to get from the dark grains? How did you add them? Was it carafa I special, or just regular carafa? If I was shooting to do a dark hoppy wheat beer I'd probably use at least 50% wheat malt, probably more like 60-70% if I was going to use flaked wheat, which I do think adds a certain unrefined complexity. I'd probably use a little bit of medium crystal, probably c40 - maybe 1/2lb - to give some sweetness to the beer to balance out some dark grain roastiness. I'd probably use carafa III special and add it to the sparge to just extract color and minimize the roastiness that could easily dominate the subtle bready character that wheat has. I'd probably use something other than Chinook for bittering - Magnum is my go to for 98% of all my bittering. It's cleaner and less harsh than Chinook or other high cohumulone hops and has a high % of alpha acid so you don't need to use much. I'd go for like 50 IBUs of Magnum at first wort, or even 60 mins and then move the Chinook and cascade both to 5min or 0 min. I like the flavors that Chinook has a lot, just don't like it's harsh bitterness.

 

[AnOldUR]

Thoughts?

Not enough wheat
Not enough hops
Too much carafa
Wrong yeast

IMHO :cross:

But it's your beer. You may love it!

 

[bleme]

I also use equal amounts of 2-row and malted wheat, plus a pound of flaked. For color I like midnight wheat, chocolate wheat and caramel wheat.

 

[techprof]

Good suggestions, I did use the wrong yeast and will see how this turns out and alter the next batch.