American Wheat recipe help

[brtisbuck]

Trying to create a basic American Wheat that is both citrus and somewhat sweet. Something that might be a good base for later fruit or spice addition, but can still stand on its own. This is what I have come up with:

5 gallon batch/full boil

4# Dry Wheat extract
2# Extra Light Dry extract - late addition

1 oz Hallertauer (4.8%) @ 60 min
1 oz Cascade (6.2%) @ 0 for aroma steep.

Safbrew Wheat WB-06 fermented @67*

OG: 1.052
IBU: 19
BU:SG: .364
SRM: 5.4
FG: 1.016

Any thoughts?
ABV: 4.8%

 

[Scooby_Brew]

I would skip or significantly lower the aroma hops addition. Wheat beers use very little or none aroma hops. I would also not mix hallertauer and cascade together, there is no reason for that. WB-06 is a good Bavarian Hefe yeast, but for an American Wheat you could go with an American ale or American wheat ale yeast. That will give you more fruitiness in the beer (good in American wheat) and less bananas and cloves (good in a Bavarian hefe).

So I would go like this:

1 oz Hallertauer (4.8%) @ 60 min
nothing for aroma.
WB-06

OR:

0.66 oz Cascade (6.2%) @ 60 min
0.33 oz Cascade at 0 min
US-05

The one with Hallertauer will give you more of a Bavarian hefe taste, and the one with Cascade more of an American wheat.

 

[permo]

American wheat beers can have quite a bit of hop aroma and I like mine dry hopped. They can also have little to no hop aroma. American Wheat is a blank canvas essentially.

You can do what you want, personally I would keep the late hops and also add an ounce of (insert favorite hop here) dry hop.

 

[brtisbuck]

Boy are those contrasting view points.

My intent here was to extract some grapefruit or citrus notes from the Cascade. I was also attempting to give it some sweet banana notes with the yeast. I figured if I can pick up on both qualities I would get a platform for fruit or spice additions in later versions and be able to play off of either quality. I'm not necessarily aiming for strict American or Bavarian, I called it American because hybrid seams to be the American way. That having been said, I would also like this brew to stand on its own well without additions so I don't want to create a train wreck that will taste bad.

I am in the beginning stages of making my own recipes so I hope to gather more input and then I will go from there. I don't mind different tasting brews, but I would also like to avoid having a good idea turn into a bad tasting brew. Critique away!

 

[brtisbuck]

No one here brews extract wheats?

 

[mathin]

I've brewed this wheat extract recipe a couple times and really like it.

5 gallon batch:

8 oz Cara-Pils
16 oz Flaked Wheat
Steeped at 150 for 30 min

7 lbs Wheat Malt Extract (liquid)

1.5 oz Cascade Hops 60 minutes
1.5 oz Willamette Hops 15 minutes
.5 oz Cascade Hops 2 minutes

1 tsp Irish Moss 15 minutes

Lemon zest from 1 lemon 15 minutes
2 g Lightly Crushed Grains of Paradise 15 minutes

Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan

I tried it once with more hops and didn't think the balance was as good.

 

[jmprdood]

All the time - I usually use a can (3.3lb) of wheat extract - Coopers, Muntons, Briess - and 3lbs of wheat dme for a 5G batch (about 1.052ish OG). I do a 2.5G boil w/ the dme for about 45 mins with an oz of cascade @45 and another oz at 15 min or so. I usually add the zest of a couple of oranges for the last 5 mins of the boil and add the lme at flameout. Cool wort and top off to 5G, then pitch whatever ale yeast I have handy.

Ferment 10-12 days and bottle conditon for a couple of weeks. Always a crowd pleaser.