The inner workings of a great american wheat. (Help!)

[Dave37]

Hey guys and gals. I am just about all set to get my starter going for my first crack at an American wheat beer. It's a 5 gallon batch and I will probably infuse half of it with raspberry during secondary. I will post my recipe here and while I welcome any possible critiques or twists on the recipe, what I'm looking for most is a little insight on the must dos and must not dos as far as techniques employed for an American wheat.

I've read conflicting theories on protein rests etc. my main goal for this beer is other than quality taste is to get that genuine mouthfeel you get in the great wheat beers. I'm concerned because the common theme I've found in my beers while the flavor and aroma will be good to very good the ones that call for a creamier or thicker mouthfeel are too thin.

Any insight you may have or that you personally use to craft a great wheat beer would be awesome.

Thanks in advance

Dave

Here's the recipe:

All grain. Batch size 5.5 gallons OG 1.047 IBUs 18

Wheat malt (us) 5.25 #
2-row (us) 3.5 #
Munich malt .75 #
Rice hulls .5 #

Willamette 1 oz @ 60

Wyeast 1010 American wheat ale

Raspberry extract purée in secondary 1.5 lbs

 

[RacingRam]

If you're worried about mouthfeel, you could throw 0.5-1.0 lbs of flaked oats (oatmeal) in the mash. I think I recently did that on a wheat beer and it turned out well. Haven't made any of my own recipes, though, so take someone else's advice before mine

 

[Dave37]

Hmm flaked oats? Thanks for the suggestion I will definitely look into it.

 

[Dave37]

Bump? Anyone?

 

[peterj]

I don't know if flaked oats will do it. I think of oats as adding more of a slick mouthfeel rather than thicker. What's your mash temp? You could mash a little higher if you're concerned about lack of body. Or you could add some carapils. Not sure how much because I don't usually use it, but maybe about 0.5 lb or so?

 

[chickypad]

I use Great western white wheat for my American wheats with a single infusion with good results. They describe it on their site as fully modified, I assume many US wheat malts are. I think if you do a protein rest with well modified malts you can be a risk for producing a thinner beer. You may want to mill the wheat separately to make sure it's well crushed. What's your mash temp?

 

[Dave37]

The plan right now is a single infusion mash at 155-156* to get as much body as possible from my grain. I will get the wheat crushed finer thanks. Thanks about the protein rest as well. I was leanin towards not doing it but its good to get some confirmation.