Suggestions/thoughts on a recipe!!!!

[jw8140]

Hey guys,

I've done roughly ten or so brews, ranging from porters, to IPAs, all from kits with pre-determined ingredients. While I've tweaked all of them to ad my own personal touch, I've never formulated my own recipe before. below is a listing of some ingredients i'm hoping to try in a few days and would appreciate any advice or cautions regarding the use of these ingredients.

Smoked Honey Wheat Ale.

1lb Flaked Barley
1lb Honey Malt
1lb Mesquite smoked 2 Row Malt
2lb Wheat DME
3lb Texas Honey
1oz Horizen Hops
Wyeast American Wheat 1010

My goal is to get a wheat ale out of this that possess the crispness that honey brings to a brew with the smokey mouth feel/aftertaste of say, a smoked porter. Any comments would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Pie_Man]

I think I would increase the malt and decrease the honey if you want the mouthfeel of a porter. What is your estimate OG and IBUs? Also, I think the smoked malt requires mashing, not sure if this is a partial mash recipe, or not.

 

[beeber]

I think I would increase the malt and decrease the honey if you want the mouthfeel of a porter. What is your estimate OG and IBUs? Also, I think the smoked malt requires mashing, not sure if this is a partial mash recipe, or not.

I agree, more honey malt and less honey.

 

[Pie_Man]

1 pound is already a lot of honey malt, although it's a little difficult for me to gauge the flavor impact in a smoked beer. I would probably increase the wheat DME versus the honey malt.

 

[jw8140]

Sorry, should have thrown that in there. Estimated O.G is right around 1.052 and the IBUs is set at 22.23 for five gallons.

 

[Bob]

1lb Flaked Barley
1lb Honey Malt
1lb Mesquite smoked 2 Row Malt
2lb Wheat DME
3lb Texas Honey
1oz Horizen Hops
Wyeast American Wheat 1010

What you've got here is some kind of weird version of braggot. And it's going to give you problems.

1. Flaked anything must be mashed. You cannot extract anything useful by steeping flaked grains. All you'll end up with is sticky glop.
2. 1 lb of honey malt in 5 US gallons is excessive. You *can* steep honey malt and get some of its flavor/aroma contributions. But it only gives its all when mashed.
3. I don't care for smoked malt, but I think the mesquite malt is worth an experiment. Whether or not you'll get anything worthwhile out of it will depend on whether you mash it.

See a trend developing yet?

4. Using that high a proportion of honey - a simple sugar which is pretty much 100% fermentable - will end up awfully thin. You certainly won't get a Porter mouthfeel.

If I were going to attempt what you desire, Wheat DME would dominate the grist. I'd steep a few ounces each of honey malt and the smoked malt, because that's really all you need, and keep the actual honey addition to no more than 15% of the total fermentables. That's still going to be pretty thin. If you want more mouthfeel, substitute more DME for the actual honey; the drinker won't taste the honey, but will taste the honey and smoked malts. If that's still too thin, add in some light crystal or caramalt.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[jw8140]

What you've got here is some kind of weird version of braggot. And it's going to give you problems.

1. Flaked anything must be mashed. You cannot extract anything useful by steeping flaked grains. All you'll end up with is sticky glop.
2. 1 lb of honey malt in 5 US gallons is excessive. You *can* steep honey malt and get some of its flavor/aroma contributions. But it only gives its all when mashed.
3. I don't care for smoked malt, but I think the mesquite malt is worth an experiment. Whether or not you'll get anything worthwhile out of it will depend on whether you mash it.

See a trend developing yet?

4. Using that high a proportion of honey - a simple sugar which is pretty much 100% fermentable - will end up awfully thin. You certainly won't get a Porter mouthfeel.

If I were going to attempt what you desire, Wheat DME would dominate the grist. I'd steep a few ounces each of honey malt and the smoked malt, because that's really all you need, and keep the actual honey addition to no more than 15% of the total fermentables. That's still going to be pretty thin. If you want more mouthfeel, substitute more DME for the actual honey; the drinker won't taste the honey, but will taste the honey and smoked malts. If that's still too thin, add in some light crystal or caramalt.

Cheers,

Bob

Question for you bob, when you say mash, my assumption is you are talking about the standard single infusion mash method? My plan was to mash all the grains in a nylon bag at 155-156' for about 55 minutes. Do you think it would still yield the problems you mentioned if it was handled this way?

 

[Bob]

Question for you bob, when you say mash, my assumption is you are talking about the standard single infusion mash method?

Bingo.

My plan was to mash all the grains in a nylon bag at 155-156' for about 55 minutes. Do you think it would still yield the problems you mentioned if it was handled this way?

Almost certainly. The only grain you list with any diastatic power is the home-smoked pale malt, and Lord knows what the smoking process did to the native enzymes. Plus you need the husk material to lauter all those sticky flakes. I'd add at least another pound of regular ol' pale malt. A 4-lb mini-mash is easy to manage, hardly different than steeping specialty grains.

Cheers,

Bob