First Wheat Beer Recipe

[Jessee]

Hello,

This is a recipe I've created to give a try, would like a second opinion on the recipe to make sure I'm not overdoing it and maybe some modifiers as well. I'm looking for a plain wheat, full bodied, easy to drink wheat without any spices.

Wheat Beer Extract Recipe

Steep grains for 20min
.5lb White Wheat Malt (Steep)
.5lb Honey Malt (Steep)
6lb Wheat LME 60min
1oz Hallertau Mittelfruh (AA 5.5%) 60min
1oz US Mt. Hood (AA 8.0%) 20min
1lb Orange Blossom Honey 10min
Wyeast 1010 - American Wheat

 

[chickypad]

If you want it full bodied then you probably want to leave the honey out - it will dry it like adding sugar. For honey flavor the honey malt is a better bet from what I understand (haven't used it). Just steeping the wheat you won't get anything unless you're intentionally trying for a little haze, you could just go with all wheat extract. Otherwise looks good if the IBU's are in line. I do like some late addition hops in my American wheats - personal preference there. You could probably get similar IBU's with the Mt Hood at 60 and the Hallertau more like 5.

 

[Jessee]

Alright thanks. So how would you make the recipe to accommodate what I'm seeking?

 

[chickypad]

Replacing the honey with LME you could do this for 5 gal, which is just very slight modification of your original recipe and in range for an American wheat:

Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated IBU: 27.8 IBUs

8.0 oz Honey Malt - steeped
7 lbs Wheat LME
1.00 oz Hallertau [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min 21.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [8.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min 6.3 IBUs

I actually think your original recipe is fine too it's just that the lb of honey is going to dry it out and make it thinner bodied I would expect, which sounds like not what you were aiming for. My thought with moving the Mt. Hood to later is to add a little more aroma/flavor as you don't seem to need the extra IBU's (leaving it at 20 min gives you 40 IBU for the recipe, a little high for a regular wheat).