What ingredients to use for a wheat beer?

[RobM]

Hey all, I am brand new to home brewing, I am currently making a coopers original lager that came with the starter kit and I was thinking for my next beer I would like a wheat beer ( Coopers wheat beer), their website says use 500g dry malt extract and 300g of dextrose, is this enough to give a strong enough ABV or will it be very light?, what other ingredients can be used give a good taste and high ABV? thanks.

 

[A4J]

Although I've never brewed this one specifically, I ran the numbers and it looks like it should come in at around 4.1% which is on par for the style. Note that you're going to be using 1700g of the wheat extract +500g of the light LIQUID extract (afaik, Coopers doesn't make dry extract) + 300g dextrose.

My first brew was a Coopers light lager, then my second brew was a wheat beer, but I didn't use the Coopers kit. I went with a kit from More Beer which was basically an unhopped liquid malt extract + steeping grains + hops. Came out much better than a Coopers kit.

 

[RobM]

Hey thanks for the reply, I went for the coopers kit and the dry malt extract I stated earlier was by Muntons, it is a Spray malt light (I hope it is good), and I will stick with the 300g of dextrose from the website, You said you used a liquid malt, I have read before that using a dry malt you do not need to use as much as a liquid malt is this true? and will it provide my brew with a higher ABV than 4.1%?

 

[A4J]

Well, if you use 500g of dried extract, it'll increase the abv a little bit but you won't be able to tell the difference. If you're interested a higher abv, you might as well look into a regular recipe kit vs. a hopped kit like Coopers.

 

[GASoline71]

I made up my own:

6 lbs. of Wheat LME (60 minute boil) If you want a lighter color... add half of the DME @ 60, and the other half @ 20.
1 lb. of Flaked Wheat (steeped 30 min.)
.5 lb. of Carapils (steeped 30 min.)

.5 oz. Amarillo hops @ 60
.5 oz. Amarillo hops @ 15

Either: Wyeast 1010 (American Wheat) or White Labs WLP 320 (American Hefeweizen Ale)

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
IBU: 18
ABV: 4.7%

I used the Wyeast 1010 last time I brewed this. I still have a little of it on tap...

Gary

 

[rodwha]

It is much cheaper to buy the ingredients yourself and put it together. I've found, from the few I compared, that MoreBeer had the best prices and free shipping on large orders. You can view their kits and buy the ingredients.

 

[RobM]

thanks for the tips guys, the thoughts of partial or all grain seem a bit daunting at this stage as I have yet to even finish my first brew but I would like to move onto them in time, I have also yet to even taste any home brew or microbrewery beers as all I have been drinking is commercial beers such as Bud or Coors