Newbie-American Wheat Help

[BackyardHB]

I have a recipe for an American Wheat that I would like to brew this weekend. I am looking to replace the DME with more grains. Please give me your advice in what to replace it with. Looking to replace at least half of the DME. Can I just add more wheat gain?

6 lb. Wheat DME
1.5 lb. Wheat gain
1 lb. six row
.5 cara plis

Is it possible to use 3 lb. of DME for 3 lb. of wheat gain?

What is a good hop bill for an American Wheat beer? It calls for simcoe.

 

[JLem]

Most wheat DME is a combination of wheat and 2-row. The actual percentage varies by brand, but it's usually in the 40/60 or 50/50 realm. For this recipe I would replace any amount of the wheat DME with a 50/50 split of wheat and 2-row. Remember too though that you'll need more grain to make up the gravity points of the DME. A general rule of thumb is that 1 lb DME = ~1.5 lb grain. So, for every pound of wheat DME you pull out, I would replace it with 0.75 lbs of wheat malt plus 0.75 lbs of 2-row

 

[estoppel]

For my American Wheat, I use Perle and a small late addition of Willamette.

 

[BackyardHB]

Most wheat DME is a combination of wheat and 2-row. The actual percentage varies by brand, but it's usually in the 40/60 or 50/50 realm. For this recipe I would replace any amount of the wheat DME with a 50/50 split of wheat and 2-row. Remember too though that you'll need more grain to make up the gravity points of the DME. A general rule of thumb is that 1 lb DME = ~1.5 lb grain. So, for every pound of wheat DME you pull out, I would replace it with 0.75 lbs of wheat malt plus 0.75 lbs of 2-row

Are you suggesting I should not use any DME? I am only set up to do partial brews.
Or should I just replace the 3 lb of wheat DME with 2.25 lb of malt?

 

[bschoenb]

I like to do Brew in a Bag mostly now, but for my Wheat... just plain old 100% Briess Wheat DME with Williamette and Cal V yeast... 15 IBU with small amount of Williamette at flame out....

Nice, simple, easy and great drinking... It's the only beer I do w/100% extract

 

[BackyardHB]

I like to do Brew in a Bag mostly now, but for my Wheat... just plain old 100% Briess Wheat DME with Williamette and Cal V yeast... 15 IBU with small amount of Williamette at flame out....

Nice, simple, easy and great drinking... It's the only beer I do w/100% extract

The reason I was asking is so I can keep my cost down. DME is not that cheap. Thanks

 

[estoppel]

It depends on the conversion you are getting from your base malt. If you are getting 75% conversion, Jlem's suggestion works fine. Eliminate 3lbs of DME and add 2.25lbs of two-row and 2.25lbs of wheat malt. If I was brewing this, that's what I'd probably do and then if I was significantly below by expected OG, I'd add a lb or two of DME.

 

[JLem]

Are you suggesting I should not use any DME? I am only set up to do partial brews.
Or should I just replace the 3 lb of wheat DME with 2.25 lb of malt?

I was just giving you a conversion so you can figure out how much malt you need if you decide to take out some DME. Obviously you have to deal with whatever you are set up to handle. If you want to pull out 3 lbs of wheat DME from the recipe, you need to replace it with 4.5 lbs of malt (NOT 2.25 lb as you mention). Of that 4.5 lbs of malt, I would split it somewhat evenly between wheat malt and base 2-row pale malt - 2.25 lbs of EACH (or maybe 2 lbs of wheat malt and 2.5 lbs of 2-row)

 

[BackyardHB]

I was just giving you a conversion so you can figure out how much malt you need if you decide to take out some DME. Obviously you have to deal with whatever you are set up to handle. If you want to pull out 3 lbs of wheat DME from the recipe, you need to replace it with 4.5 lbs of malt (NOT 2.25 lb as you mention). Of that 4.5 lbs of malt, I would split it somewhat evenly between wheat malt and base 2-row pale malt - 2.25 lbs of EACH (or maybe 2 lbs of wheat malt and 2.5 lbs of 2-row)

Sounds good! Thanks for the tips. Everything day it's a learning process. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy brewing.