Maple Wheat Ale Clone - Questions

[PvtSkippy]

Greetings,

First of all, forgive me if this is in the wrong area. Wasn't sure if this should go in the beginner area or the software area, but this sorta seemed more logical.

Anyways, after five boxed extract kits, I decided to piece one together for myself from a recipe found in Clone Brews for Maple Wheat Ale (pg. 137 for those who wish to play at home). Yes, not exactly imaginative, but I'm working my way up slowly and cautiously. The original is as follows:

Boil 1.5g of water, pull from heat and add:
9.25# Wheat DME
.5# maple syrup
1.5oz Willamette @ 5%

Bring volume to 2.5g, boil for 45m and add
.5oz Willamette @ 5%
1 tsp Irish Moss

Normal cooling procedures, yeast pitching and other yadda yadda stuff that goes without saying.

Well, after reading about the benefits of doing a full boil, I decided I wanted to go that route. (OK, I'll fess up, I bought a 40 qt kettle and want to use it so SWMBO doesn't question the purchase.) I also let the LHBS guru talk me into adding some grain for steepage. Add to that some playing around with
Beer Smith and trying to keep the numbers in line with what the book says, I came up with these changes to adjust for hop utilization due to the full boil:

Starting with the grain, steeped at 150ish for 30m in 1 gallon of water:

1# Munich Light Grain
.5# White Wheat Grain

Add that to 5.25 gallons of water, bring to 180 and add
9# Wheat DME
.25# maple syrup

Bring to boil and add:
1oz Willamette @ 4.4%

Add 1 tsp Irish Moss and .25# maple syrup @ 45m
Add .5 oz Willamette @ 4.4% at 50m
Add .5 oz Willamette @ 4.4% at 55m

Beer Smith tells me that I should end up like this, compared to what the book says:

OG: 1.083 (Book says 1.084)
FG: 1.019 (Book says 1.016-1.018)
IBU: 21.6 (Book says 21)
SRM: 11.4 (Book says 8-9)

I'm wondering if I hold back a bit of the DME until the end if that will bring make the wort a bit lighter in the end. What I've read says yes, but in practice...?

Anyway, I'm most concerned with the hop utilization and the overall procedure. This is the first time I've deviated from the written instructions and I guess, more than anything, I'm just looking for some reassurance that what comes out at the end won't taste like it was filtered through an old gym sock.

 

[Jilaman]

.25# of Maple syrup is not going to give you much maple flavor. This is the drawback to maple syrup is you need a lot to make the flavor come through, and that drives the $$$ through the roof to make a 5gal or 10gal batch.

 

[PvtSkippy]

That's why I figured I'd add a second .25# with 15m to go. Figured it would keep more of the flavor from being boiled away. I'll also be bottling with 1/3 cup of syrup and 1/2 cup of corn sugar, so I thought that would add some further mapley goodness.

 

[Freezeblade]

That's why I figured I'd add a second .25# with 15m to go. Figured it would keep more of the flavor from being boiled away. I'll also be bottling with 1/3 cup of syrup and 1/2 cup of corn sugar, so I thought that would add some further mapley goodness.

Maple Flavor cannot be 'boiled away' per se, as the process in making it is boiling. If you really want more maple to come though, add the maple syrup after most of the fermentation is done, like you would with fruit.

 

[PvtSkippy]

Maple Flavor cannot be 'boiled away' per se, as the process in making it is boiling. If you really want more maple to come though, add the maple syrup after most of the fermentation is done, like you would with fruit.

Guess I didn't think that one all the way through...how dare you inject logic into the discussion?

Other than my syrup quandry then, does my hop schedule look OK?

 

[oberon567]

You could always use Maple Extract in the Secondary, to taste, to up the maple flavor is you want... Amazon has it for $9 for 4 oz, and I bet you would only need an ounce or so...

 

[tjohnson88]

Just wondering how your brew came out. I'm in the same situation you were. A solid kit brewer with the clone brews book and came across the maple wheat. I'm planning on using maple sap instead instead of water (since I'm tapping my maple trees) and getting some advice from the local homebrew shop and your recipe