"Pale" Weizenbock Recipe Help

[bigteachey]

I started off wanting to do an imperial/double hefe that would be a solid spring/summer brew with some extra punch. I looked into the style guides and wound up realizing that I am trying to craft, essentially, a Weizenbock. However, I want to keep this on the pale side of that style (Brewers Association recognizes Weizenbock down to an SRM of 7 vs. BJCP requirements of SRM of 12 or greater). Also, I am not worried about achieving the added body or focus on plum flavor (vs. banana/clove) you see with some darker versions of the style. Again, just ramping up a Hefe. With that said, I have worked up two extract recipes that differ not only in their OG but also the ratio of wheat to barley in the grain bill. I maintained the BU:GU for both recipes and would use WY 3068 either way.

First Option :
6 lb Northern Brewer Wheat malt syrup
3.15 lb NB Gold malt syrup
1 lb Briess Wheat DME
0.5 lb CaraHell (steep)
1 oz Hallertau @ 60
0.5 oz Saaz @ 45
OG : 1.074
SRM : 6
IBU : 17.6

Second Option:
6 lb NB Wheat malt syrup
6 lb NB Gold malt syrup
0.5 lb CaraHell (steep)
1 oz Hallertau @ 60
1 oz Saaz @ 45
OG : 1.088
SRM : 7
IBU : 22.4

The first option is damn near 50/50 wheat/barley and the second one is closer to 40/60 wheat/barley. I am curious as to what knowledge there is out there regarding which of these will provide a better (Hefe)Weizen character or if there are any glaring insufficiencies.
Also, before there are any questions , I went with the gold malt not only because it kept my SRM low but also because its got CaraPils built in so that allowed me to keep the steep as simple as possible.

Ok boys, lemme know what you think.

 

[slarkin712]

Sounds like you want something like Weihenstephaner Vitus? Here's a thread I started a while back that is still a work in progress:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/weihenstephaner-vitus-recipes-thoughts-327589/

On one of the latter pages is a recipe I translated for extract, but it's not tested out.

 

[TopherM]

FYI, a wheat liquid malt extract is not 100% wheat malt. They already contain 40-50% barley (two-row/pilsner/pale malt) in the extract. The exact % should be on the label.

So, when making an extract Hefe, all you need is the Wheat Malt extract, you don't need that Gold extract at all. Eliminate the Gold extract and bump up the Wheat malt to compensate.

Also, traditional German Hefe's only have the single 1oz noble hop addition at 60, traditionally Hallertau. You don't need the 45 min Saaz addition, it will only compete with the wheat/yeast protein character that defines the style.