Critique My Peach Ginger Wheat Ale? (Partial)

[Elshupacabra]

This is basically the first recipe that I've written up completely from scratch and it's the first partial mash recipe that I've ever done at all. Look it over, anything I've left out or should maybe do differently?

My brother suggested that I try something like a Peach-ginger and I just built a new mash/lauter tun that I'm excited to try out...so I came up with this:

UPDATED RECIPE

5.5gal batch/ 3.5 gallon boil

Fermentables:

• 4lbs White Wheat Malt
• 3lbs Wheat Dry extract
• 1lb Pale Malt
• .75lbs Flaked Wheat
• .25lbs Honey Malt

Rhizomes:

• 2oz Fresh grated Ginger root (60min)
• 2oz Fresh grated Ginger root (15min)

Hops:

• .75oz Hallertauer (60min)
• .25oz Hallertauer (20min)
• .50oz Centennial (10min)

Est. OG: 1.054
Est. IBUs: 12.2
Est. ABV: 5.5%

Yeast: Wyeast #1010 American Wheat Ale

"Dry hopping" on 5lbs frozen peaches in secondary.
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I'm thinking that I want to keep the hop presence to a minimum because I'm afraid it will clash with the peach flavor that I hope to achieve.

I've never brewed with either of these flavors before...so I'm not exactly sure what will happen. Ideally I think I'd want a beer with a solid peach flavor with a ginger flavor and spiciness in the background.

What do you think??

 

[Elshupacabra]

bump

 

[nanop]

Take some of this with a grain of salt, as I haven't brewed with ginger (yet),,,

Unless you add some base grains (pale or pilsner malt), this isn't a mini-mash (as you're just steeping the wheat). As it is, you're likely around OG: 1.050 w/ quite a bit of unfermentable starches (which might be fine for haze).

Those hops should only give about 12IBU. I'm not sure how much bitterness the ginger will give you. You may have a lot of ginger though... Look at some other recipes that include ginger to gauge this.

To get a "balanced" beer, I'd probably aim for about 20-30 IBUs @ 1.050. Like I said, I don't know if the ginger will add ~10IBUs. It might add more, it might add less.

Lastly, I might be a bit of a "clean freak", but I'd probably microwave the peaches in a covered cassarole dish till they bubbled in order to ensure that I'm not infecting the batch with bacteria.

 

[Elshupacabra]

Take some of this with a grain of salt, as I haven't brewed with ginger (yet),,,

Unless you add some base grains (pale or pilsner malt), this isn't a mini-mash (as you're just steeping the wheat). As it is, you're likely around OG: 1.050 w/ quite a bit of unfermentable starches (which might be fine for haze).

Those hops should only give about 12IBU. I'm not sure how much bitterness the ginger will give you. You may have a lot of ginger though... Look at some other recipes that include ginger to gauge this.

To get a "balanced" beer, I'd probably aim for about 20-30 IBUs @ 1.050. Like I said, I don't know if the ginger will add ~10IBUs. It might add more, it might add less.

Lastly, I might be a bit of a "clean freak", but I'd probably microwave the peaches in a covered cassarole dish till they bubbled in order to ensure that I'm not infecting the batch with bacteria.

duh...forgot base malt. It was a late night .

The beersmith est OG was 1.048, but I'll be adding some pale malt, so that should go up a tiny bit (1.053).

I did a bit of searching around and I found a beer that was made with 6oz of ginger and was reported to have quite a ginger punch. I definitely want the ginger to be noticeable, but I don't want it to over power either, so I might back it down to 2....2.5oz.

According to Beersmith, with the default AA%, that hop bill will only give me 7.3 IBUs, which seemed good to me last night, but now I'm thinking it may be a little low. But I really don't want the hoppiness to clash with the peach, so I'll probably still lean towards less rather than more. (suggestions?)

I agree with sanitizing the peaches. I read that if you heat them up to around 160degrees F for a couple of minutes that should probably should be enough to kill most of the bad stuff, but not hot enough to destroy the cell walls of the peaches completely, so I planned on doing that.

 

[nanop]

Here's Captain Damage's Ginger Wheat recipe. OG of 1.052, IBU of 12, much like your recipe.

He uses 8oz of shredded ginger (6 in the boil, 2 in dryhop) and claims:

The ginger flavor is dominant and up front, with just a tiny bit of heat. There's just enough hop bittering to not quite balance the sweetness of the malt.

You're using less, but it still might be "too much".

Also, just a thought... Gambrinous Honey Malt lends a sweet, honeyish flavor. It might be a nice addition to bring out the peaches. I typically use about 4oz per 5 gallon batch. I've never used more than that and have read reports that 8oz is "too much"....

 

[Elshupacabra]

The honey malt sounds like a great idea! I'll definitely throw in 4oz of that, thanks! I also switched the hops that I had from Hersbrucker to Hallertauer and added .50oz of Cascade in the last 10mins. That brought my IBU's up to 12.2 which is about as high as I think I'm willing to go with this particular recipe.

I'll update the original recipe.

As far as the ginger goes, the way I'm thinking of it is that the ginger flavor from the 2oz for 60 minutes will dissipate rather fully over the 60mins and that most of the ginger flavor I get will be from the 15min addition, but I can also choose to cut the second addition in half or entirely, depending on what I can pick up from the boil characteristics as it's going.

I found that same Captain Damage ginger wheat, but I suspect that the dry hopping had a little bit to do with that "ginger punch" he described although I don't know, I've never used ginger in this capacity. I don't intend to add anymore ginger in the secondary...unless I deem it absolutely necessary at that time.

Either way, I'm not afraid. I'm just open to any glaring opportunity to make it better.