Second brew--wheat recipe

[BrewmasterK]

New poster--second brew. Went to my LHBS and told him I would like to brew an extract wheat beer using some steeping specialty grains. Here are the ingredients I walked out with.

6 lbs Wheat dry extract
.5 lb Crystal Malt 69L
.5 lb Victory Malt
1 oz Cascade (60 min)
1 oz Cascade (15 min)
1 pig WL#WLP300. Hefeweizen Ale

What do you folks think of this recipe. It looks like it's going to be much darker than the usual wheat. Will the hop flavor be too strong. Would it taste better if I just left out the steeping grains? Would love some opinions before I brew on Sunday? Thanks

 

[SIXFOOTER]

The grains will give a bit of body and color. 2 oz of hops will be a bit hoppy for a Heffe, It may come out more like a Belgian Wit without the oatmeal

 

[Rev2010]

A bit too much with the hops. Cascade is typical higher in alpha acids, what is the AA percentage on your cascade packets?

I think the Crystal is too dark, never even knew there was 69L. But hey, it just sounds like it will come out looking a bit more like a Schneider Weisse. I'm using Carahell in mine, a lot lighter in color. I say go for it, minus some hops. Not fully a dunkel but somewhere in between.


Rev.

 

[unionrdr]

With the wheat extract,you need some barley malt in there to make it balanced,at the least. For some reason,you have to do that. All wheat beers do. I'm making a pale ale with 1 can of hopped LME,3lbs of extra light SDME. And,because of that,I used lower alpha acid hops,as you should with the wheat. I used one ounce Kent Golding 4.5%AA @15mins,& will use 1oz Willamette 4.7%AA to dry hop. Maybe half an once of each of those would do for the wheat beer. Kent goldings has floral tones with herby,lemon grass smells to me. The Willamette is the top aroma hops in the US,with floral,fruit,earthy,spicy tones. Seems like that would fit to me...

 

[JLem]

I just plugged this into Beer Smith and here are the anticiapted numbers:

Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated FG: 1.014
Estimated ABV: 5.6%
Estimated Color: 10.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.2 IBU (Rager)

I assumed a 5 gallon batch with only a 3 gallon boil. Darker and a bit more hoppy than a standard Hefe, but not too far off. I think it will make a good beer.

 

[KBrew9]

Crazy, I am about to start my second brew, its going to be a wheat beer, and I'm going to Princeton Homebrew to get ingredients this weekend. If you are from Princeton I'm assuming thats where you went maybe?

anyways, the addition of cascade hops to a wheat beer is interesting, I'd be curious as to how that turned out. Might end up with a little more color then a typical Wheat I would think.

 

[BrewmasterK]

Thanks for all the feedback. The Crystal malt is 60L. Sorry for the typo. I think I'll cut the second (15 min) hops addition to .5oz.

What about adding a can of peach puree for about a week in the secondary fermented. Any reason why this won't work.

Yes I did go to Princeton Homebrew. Let me know what you decide to use.

 

[Rev2010]

With the wheat extract,you need some barley malt in there to make it balanced,at the least. For some reason,you have to do that. All wheat beers do

Sorry, but wrong. All wheat DME already has 35% or so barley in it. Some brands like Muntons use 45% barley. You can do an all wheat DME recipe. In germany some hefe's are up to as much as 70% wheat grist.


Rev.

 

[Rev2010]

What about adding a can of peach puree for about a week in the secondary fermented. Any reason why this won't work.

Yes I did go to Princeton Homebrew. Let me know what you decide to use.

It will work but the results might be unusual. From what I've seen fruit additions seem to be most commonly added to American Wheat styled beers rather than Hefeweizen's. I could be wrong though.


Rev.

 

[unionrdr]

Sorry,but not wrong. Look at what you just said. I've been studying German beers & such. You need some barley malt in there,& they all do. I never said how much. I just don't recall the exact reason for the barley malt,as they said. So let's not be too quick to snap like a poodle.

 

[KBrew9]

Thanks for all the feedback. The Crystal malt is 60L. Sorry for the typo. I think I'll cut the second (15 min) hops addition to .5oz.

What about adding a can of peach puree for about a week in the secondary fermented. Any reason why this won't work.

Yes I did go to Princeton Homebrew. Let me know what you decide to use.

I am a big believer in overly sweet additions to beer having their taste augmented into a mutant offspring of the flavor you were hoping to get out of it. I'd go with a fruit that has more of a nuetral flavor to it, or a more "spicy" flavor, that that it is either bland enough to retain its original flavor, or citric enough to work with typical matls/hops.

But I am also a mad scientist when it comes to mixing everything and anything, so I'd say go for the peach! You never know until you try, and it isn't common, so if it does work out well, BAM. that is all.

 

[Rev2010]

Sorry,but not wrong. Look at what you just said. I've been studying German beers & such. You need some barley malt in there,& they all do. I never said how much. I just don't recall the exact reason for the barley malt,as they said. So let's not be too quick to snap like a poodle.

I'm not going g to argue this at length. The point was you said he needs to add barley malt, and I responded because wheat DME already is 35% or more barley so it's not a necessity to have to thin out the wheat further. I've done both, pure wheat DME brews and wheat DME brews mixed with pilsen DME and both taste great and have their different nuances. And I've read Eric Warner's book as we'll if that's the research you're referring too.

 

[unionrdr]

Ok,I found the info I read,& I remembered it backwards. I'm half right. It said that,in Germany,by law wheat bear has to be at least 50% wheat malt. But I have yet to read up on commercial beers that don't use some barley malt. Maybe some company does? My bad. But,as an interesting point,I read up on the German offshoot style called roggensbier. It's a rye beer that,according to the German style,is 50% barley malt,& instead of 50% wheat malt,it's 25% wheat malt,& 25% rye malt. I might try that one in the future...

 

[wulfsburg]

Thanks for all the feedback. The Crystal malt is 60L. Sorry for the typo. I think I'll cut the second (15 min) hops addition to .5oz.

What about adding a can of peach puree for about a week in the secondary fermented. Any reason why this won't work.

Yes I did go to Princeton Homebrew. Let me know what you decide to use.

I would say stray away from the peach puree. I have used 1 can of oregon peach puree in secondary for a beer I did, and it didn't do anything to the beer really. A slight peach aroma, but thats it. I would do Peaches in a different beer. Just my opinion though.

 

[EarlyBirdBrew]

I tried peaches in my second batch ever. Mine was a honey kolsch and I split the 5 gallon batch and left half normal and racked 2.5 gallons over about 3lbs (was going for a major peach flavor) of fresh Texas peaches. Honestly I though the experiment had failed because upon first taste it was just really off and didn't taste peachy. About 3 months later I revisited it and it was tart and juicy and delicious so I say go for it just be prepared for some crazy flavors. If you have a secondary you could always split your batch so you could compare them side by side.

 

[JLem]

Ok,I found the info I read,& I remembered it backwards. I'm half right. It said that,in Germany,by law wheat bear has to be at least 50% wheat malt. But I have yet to read up on commercial beers that don't use some barley malt. Maybe some company does? My bad. But,as an interesting point,I read up on the German offshoot style called roggensbier. It's a rye beer that,according to the German style,is 50% barley malt,& instead of 50% wheat malt,it's 25% wheat malt,& 25% rye malt. I might try that one in the future...

You don't technically need any barley malt. You can make a 100% wheat beer: