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Wheat Beer Recipe Review

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SailorJerry

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Messages
1,441
Location
Kossuth County
Alright, looking for your opinions! Created this ourselves, no idea how it will turn out, but it met all the criteria on the styles per beer smith...

1# Flaked Wheat - do I steep this or put it in at boil?
.5 oz Cascade @ 60 min
#1 Wheat LME @ 60 min
4# Wheat DME @ 15 min
2oz Cascade @ 5
2oz Cascade @ flameout

Yeast recommendation?

Shows me 16.6 IBUs
5.8 SRM
1.047 OG, 1.011 FG - 4.7% ABV
 
Flaked wheat has no enzymes, so you need something like 2-row or pilsner to convert it

By the looks of it, they aren't mashing anything, so the fact it has no enzymes doesn't really matter.

Not sure what you are trying to gain by adding 1 lb of flaked wheat? Body? Cloudiness? Regardless, steep it, don't add to the boil. Also, is there a particular reason you're using 2 different wheat extracts (dry and liquid)? What kind of beer are you trying to make?
 
Not looking to convert the wheat, hoping it gives it a bit of a haze. In BeerSmith, we have this as a wheat beer, which is what we are after.
We still do extract batches, so I assumed the flaked wheat would be steeped like we do with crystal and the like when doing other types of beers.

No idea on why I have LME and DME - I have most of the malt as a 15 minute addition to keep the color light, I think late additions help with that, right?
 
Again, as been said 2x before, the flaked wheat is a waste, and it won't do anything for you except make a mess.

If you want haze, make a slurry by mixing 2 tablespoons of flour mixed with 1 tablespoon of cold water (add a little more water if it's too thick). Add the slurry to your kettle 5 minutes before flameout.

If you want the taste and body of the (raw) flaked wheat it needs to be mashed with a diastatic malt to convert the starches into sugar and dextrins. Look up mini mash, it's easy to do, just like steeping but with a little bit more attention. If you can't be bothered with that, leave it out.

Use a wheat beer yeast. If you don't want to taste bananas stay away from the German Wheat yeasts unless you know how to manipulate them to suppress that character (thru colder ferm temps).

Here are a few good options I would use. None of these will taste like bananas:
Liquid: WYeast Witbier Yeast WY3942-PC or WY3944 (=White Labs WLP400).
Dry: Fermentis Safbrew Wheat Yeast WB-06
 
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Yeah, not looking for a banana taste from the yeast, so any yeast recommendations that will be "cleaner flavored" would be great.
Any thoughts on the hop schedule or type of hop?
 
Yeah, not looking for a banana taste from the yeast, so any yeast recommendations that will be "cleaner flavored" would be great.
Any thoughts on the hop schedule or type of hop?

I gave some yeast options, above.

Hop schedule looks fine for an American Wheat ("American" because of the hops).
Or change your 5 minute hops to become flameout, start chilling until the wort is 180F, then add the last 2 oz of hops and let them "steep" for 15-30 minutes. Give it a light stir every 5 minutes. Hop stands like that lend a lot more flavor and aroma to the beer than flameout hops do.
 
In addition to Island Lizard's advice, if you want another neutral yeast suggestion, I'd advise to use a dry sachet of US-05 which many use as a go to yeast. Less expensive and easier to prepare than liquid yeasts. If you want no banana you should stay away from Hefe style yeasts.

The way you are going about the hop schedule you'll have a "Hoppy Wheat" beer. If this is what you desire you are on the right track. I use a somewhat similar schedule with Amarillo hops but include a dry hop addition in the keg (or secondary if you prefer). BeerSmith is not the best calculating hop IBU's with late addition hops as you have listed, but it will be perceived as higher than 16.6 by your palate with those late additions. I would probably like it....but try not to let hop IBU's control your beer. In general terms, however, it does give you a starting point.

I realize the term All Grain brewing sounds intimidating, but trust me, you'll be there sooner than you think and have all the control you will need.
 
We do have a 10 gallon pot available and have talked about doing BIAB, but haven't got that far yet (busy time of the year in Iowa). I'm really not looking for a hoppy wheat beer - in fact, I'd like very little, if any, bitterness to the beer. I don't want a Boulavard or 312 clone, but that's the style of American Wheat Beer that we are looking for. What hop additions would you change in that case?
 
We do have a 10 gallon pot available and have talked about doing BIAB, but haven't got that far yet (busy time of the year in Iowa). I'm really not looking for a hoppy wheat beer - in fact, I'd like very little, if any, bitterness to the beer. I don't want a Boulavard or 312 clone, but that's the style of American Wheat Beer that we are looking for. What hop additions would you change in that case?

Yeah, in fact I was thinking you may end up with something like a Boulevard 80 Acre or similar. But you'll have a "soft" hoppiness rather than a harsh in your face bitterness. Don't take my word for what you may like - this is the time to experiment. I turned my nose up at a hoppy wheat beer until I brewed one. Now it is among my favorites.

BUT, let me say by choosing a Single Malt and Single Hop (SMaSH) beer, you can really learn a lot about ingredients this way. Early additions give bitterness, later additions give softness and roundness with aromas. The only way to know is to try.
 
Just an update, this beer ended up turning out really, really good. Hazy but bright color, tastes like a wheat beer, hardly a hop presence (I think we ended up using 2 oz total, maybe 3oz, most at 5 min and flameout). This is the first beer we kegged as well, which makes it that much better :)
 
And here it is!

Indian Days Wheat.jpg
 
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