My first ingredients?

[methusula110]

I am going to try and brew my first batch with handpicked ingredients. Can anyone look at this and tell me if I'm off my rocker, please kind sirs
I'm brewing 5lbs yield, my friends and family members like a milder beer than an IPA (my favorite), so I'm trying to create a wheat beer we can all like...not sure if this makes sense, but I'm fairly new at this. This will be my 6th batch.

Briess Wheat Unhopped LME 3.5lbs
Munton & Fision DME 1.5lbs
Caramel 10L (grain).5lbs
Honey Malt (grain).5lbs
Halletau pellets .5 oz
Cascade pellets .5 oz
Nottingham Ale yeast

Thanks

 

[duboman]

Not bad to start, assuming you are shooting for an easy drinking American Wheat? A couple suggestions:

Currently your beer is coming in about 3.5% ABV and you did not list the times for the hop additions so here is what I might recommend.

Increase the Wheat LME to 5 lbs and this will give you an OG of 1.045 or a beer that should finish around 4.5%ABV
Increase the Hallertauer to 1oz and add at 60 minutes and keep the .5oz cascade but add at 5 minutes for some aroma
8oz of Honey malt may be kind of high as it can be pretty strong so you might want to reduce that to 4oz and then bump up your DME a bit, maybe .25-.5 additional.

American Wheat is a pretty clean beer so you can also use SO5 for a nice clean ferment and be sure to ferment around 65-68 degrees.

If you were shooting for a traditional German Wheat there would be no cascade, only hallertauer for bittering and you should definitely use a liquid strain of yeast like WY3056 to bring out the clove/banana typical for the style

Cheers!

 

[methusula110]

Thanks duboman, I should have added that I am going to zest 3 oranges and add them at the beginning of the boil, I am also toying with adding honey.

 

[duboman]

Thanks duboman, I should have added that I am going to zest 3 oranges and add them at the beginning of the boil, I am also toying with adding honey.

Personally, if I want orange in my beer I add a slice when I pour but if you want to I would add it at flame out for more flavor/aroma retention. At the beginning of the boil it will just muddy up the beer.

If you are using the honey malt I would not add additional honey, the honey malt will give you the flavor you want by itself. Either one or the other IMO. Honey is 100% fermentable and will add to ABV and thin out the beer. If you did insist on using it I would add it also at flame out but also add back in 4oz of malto-dextrine to add back the body the honey would remove. If you were planning on 1lb or less, I would skip it, you won't get much out of it

 

[methusula110]

Thanks for the tips, I will take your advice, thank you.