midnight wheat wine

[Grod1]

So i am am going to brew this next sunday. its a chocolate wheat wine .I would love feedback if anyone has any.
12 gallons 12 %ABV
20 lb Pale 2-Row 39.2%
10 lb White Wheat
6 lb Dry Malt Extract - Wheat
3 lb Cane Sugar
2 lb CaraCrystal Wheat Malt
2 lb Roasted Barley 3.9%
2 lb Chocolate Wheat 3.9%
1.5 lb Midnight Wheat Malt
1.5 lb Flaked Oats
.75 lbFlaked Wheat
1 lb Crystal 120L
0.5 lb Chocolate malt 1%

I need the 9#s of DME and sugar to get my abv where i want it with out sticking the mash tuns.
anyone think that its not enough roast?Should i add cocoa nibs?hops?
The yeast is mix of S04/ Irish dry and Imperial Organic Yeast - Darkness. but i might add some high alcohol lalvins dry yeast to help out.

 

[snowtiger1987]

I would drop the roasted barley (not making Impy Stout are you), flaked oats (same), flaked wheat (plenty of wheat already), crystal 120L (gonna be sweet enough as is), and chocolate malt. If the color is not where you want with these modifications, add more midnight wheat and chocolate wheat. If you want more actual chocolate flavor add cocoa nibs or Chocobrau. Just add a clean bittering hop like Magnum to about 50 IBU's.

 

[Grod1]

That is some great advise, the 120 can go. the chocolate malt i have never used I figured it wouldn't hurt to add 1/2 # to a 50# recipe. But i will take your advice and omit it. the amount or roasted barley came into play when discussing what i am actually trying to accomplish. Its is a wheat wine but its a stout.a black wheat wine-but bordering stout. I dont really know what sounds more appealing to you?
would you/any one on the entire internet add chocolate to it? i am a fan of cholaca liqued cacao but dont have time to get it by sunday. so i will use a powered chocolate milk. if i do add it.

 

[snowtiger1987]

I think the roast malt character would interfere with the wheat character. I would would brew it without the non-malt chocolate and see what it tastes like after fermentation. You can always add the chocola (or coca nibs) later if you want. I have found the chocolate wheat to have a lot of chocolate/coffee flavor as is.

Personally I never add anything to the malt bill just to put it in there. I want everything to contribute a perceivable character in the final product without getting muddled.

 

[Grod1]

so i tweaked this a lil bit. i think i will not add any chocolate products at least not during the brew. maybe i will let it sit on nibs after i keg it.
12.22 abv @70% BHefficiency
20 lb Pale 2-Row 39.2%
10 lb White Wheat
6 lb Dry Malt Extract - Wheat
3.3lbs Golden Light Liquid Malt Extract
2 lb CaraCrystal Wheat Malt
2 lb Roasted Barley 3.9%
2 lb Chocolate Wheat 3.9%
1.5 lb Midnight Wheat Malt
1.5 lb Cane Sugar
1 lb Flaked Oats
.5 lbFlaked Wheat
.5 lb Crystal 120L
.5 lb Chocolate malt 1%
im gonna go with 3 oz magnum at 60 mins 44 IBUs

so it might be more of a stout then a black wheat wine but thats what i'm feeling atm.

im at 43% wheat anyone think i should re work the recipe a lil bit so that its 50%? Or since i already abandoned some obvious style guidlines dont even worry about it?

 

[madscientist451]

I wouldn't make an experimental 12 gallon batch, with that many ingredients. You'll have a lot of money wrapped up in something that might not work out. The recipe also seems too complicated, its easier to make adjustments if you have less ingredients to change.
Cut it back to a 3, 4 or 5 gallon recipe and skip the extract and the cane sugar. I don't think oats fit in this beer, unless you want to change it up and make an imperial oatmeal stout.
Simplify the malt bill, get it down to 4-5 malts and then tweak it on your next batch.
I haven't plugged the numbers in, so this is just some rough on the fly figuring:
For 5 gallons: 10 lbs White Wheat
3.5 lbs Caracrystal Wheat Malt
6 lbs 2-row
.25 lb Chocolate malt ( shooting for about 1%)
If you really think you need the roasted barley, I'd back it off to 2%, if the taste is too
"roasty", you may have trouble getting to the chocolate flavor you are looking for.
Cocoa nibs can be a crap shoot, unless you have the process and amounts already dialed in, I'd go with something like Cholaca at packaging. Perform some blending trials and let other people taste the results before you add it to the whole batch.
Make a 2.5 gallon simple SMASH beer or something equivalent and use the whole yeast cake in the Wheat wine.

 

[Grod1]

It wasn't an experiment.Just debating on how important it was to me to follow style guidelines. (all grain is free for me but thats a different story)the dme and sugar were needed to make it 50% wheat and to hit my target ABV while not maxing out my mashtuns since i needed ample room for rice hulls.
yeast is no problem at all i bank my own and I have as much as i need its a mix of S04/ Irish dry and Imperial Organic Yeast - Darkness.
With all that said i really do appreciate the time you put in to responding to my post.And for most people in the homebrew game its very good advice.

edit- also i brewed it already it took 5 hours and i hit 1.103( i was aiming for 1.123)

i did rework this recipe taking into perspective what you guys said and i will do a true wheat wine one day( still gona be black but no roast) but it snot my turn to brew for another 3 week and i have 2 other beer i wan to do. a minimum of 6 weeks before that would even be a possibility.

 

[snowtiger1987]

Let us know how it turns out. The last (and only) wheat wine I brewed had 3 ingredients (pale malt 49%, red wheat 49%, and cara-wheat 2%), was aged for 2 months in a 5 gallon bourbon barrel, and won best in show at the state fair.