First Recipe

[roger_tucker]

I'm trying to put my first recipe together in BeerSmith and I wanted to get some input. I've done a couple of all grain brews with some success. I want to do something pretty straight forward and simple for a first crack at this. I've put together what I think should be a pretty standard wheat beer. Thoughts?

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 1056
Yeast Starter: 1000ml
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.012
IBU: 27.8
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 5.5

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.5 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 57.8 %
4.0 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) (2.0 SRM) Grain 35.6 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 6.7 %
1.5 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (First Wort) Hops 25.0 IBU
0.5 oz Liberty [4.3 %] (10 mins) Hops 25.0 IBU
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11.25 lb

 

[Barley_Bob]

Using 60% wheat is going to get a little sticky, but I've used up to 50% without adding rice hulls. It can be a little bit of a nuisance, but it's not a big deal. This looks pretty standard otherwise. Any critique at this point is just going to be a matter of personal preference. I haven't done a prewort hop before, but folks say it works well, although this isn't going to give you much hop aroma. American Pale Wheat Ale is one of my favorite styles (I realize that's not what your recipe is), and for that I would put most of my hops at the end of the boil or at flameout. You could also consider using something other than 2-row (like Vienna), but that's an idea and not a requirement. Finally, I would use either victory or biscuit in place of the crystal, but again, that's my preference. If you make what you have right now, you'll be fine. If it were my beer, I'd swap out the crystal and add some American hops. But it's your beer, and you should make what you like.

As a side note, I am not getting 25IBUs in my calculator, but maybe I'm overlooking something.

 

[roger_tucker]

Hey, I really appreciate your input. I'm most interested in you comment about the wheat percentage. I know you get a lot of protein from wheat which can give you a cloudy beer, but that more of an appearance issue. Your comment about rice hulls makes it sound like what I have might be pretty heavy on the body and that I might want to dry it out.

I'll look at the hops you suggested. I was mostly worried about putting something together that was just way off base. It sounds like you think I'm at least in the ball park.

I'm actually having some problems with efficiency in my brews. I'm not too worried about it. I end up adding some grain, spend another couple of dollars and forget about it. That may be why the IBU's came up differently for you. I saw a comment the other, "I'm trying to make good beer not good efficiency"

 

[roger_tucker]

Did some more reading on rice hulls and what they do. I see now that a high wheat percentage beer can more easily result in a stuck sparge and the rice hulls can help prevent that. I also read that 40%-50% is a good rule of thumb for American wheats. I'm going to reduce the wheat down to about 40%. Thanks again for the input.

 

[Barley_Bob]

You will definitely have a cloudy beer, which isn't a bad thing. I have a lot of love for the crystal clear beer, but you're just not going to get that with so much wheat. I bottled an American Pale Wheat today, which was very cloudy, but looked like a glass full of sunshine. It wasn't clear, but it was gorgeous.

I think you can safely control the body here through fermentation temperature. You could add sugar, but then we're moving into the IPA realm. Which is fine, but then we're really shifting away from what you started with. If you want to stay simple, I just wouldn't worry about it.

You can definitely add hops as if this were a pale ale. If you do too much, you may move a bit out of style, but you'll still have a great beer. It's not a problem at all. If you're nervous, you might try mixing American and noble or European hops.

You can get good efficiency if you keep at it. I'll flip over to your other thread when I have a chance, although you probably already have lots of suggestions.