Wheat Red Mild?

[fat-buddha]

So my 11 year old daughter has expressed an interested with brewing with me. Now being as that I've only done one batch of beer, I'm a little new on the recipe front and I'm trying to come up with something that meets her appearance interests in the final product.

The two criteria that she has set is that the beer be cloudy and that the beer be red. Based on that my thought was that I'd have to include wheat and I could get by with some of the "red" ale recipes.

My interest is more towards brewing Milds/Session beers so l came up with the following. I think it should be red, but I'm not sure if that level of wheat will get a "cloudy" beer.

Any opinions? I was basically trying for what should be a nice mild, and then replaced a chunk of base malt with wheat.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 2.85 gal
Post Boil Volume: 1.52 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 1.32 gal
Bottling Volume: 1.07 gal
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 14.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 66.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
16.00 oz ESB Pale Malt (Gambrinus) (4.0 SRM) Grain 1 40.0 %
16.00 oz Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 40.0 %
6.00 oz Caramunich I (Weyermann) (51.0 SRM) Grain 3 15.0 %
1.00 oz CHÂTEAU SPECIAL B® (152.4 SRM) Grain 4 2.5 %
1.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.5 %
0.12 oz UK Fuggles [5.30 %] - First Wort 60.0 mi Hop 6 11.4 IBUs
0.14 oz UK Fuggles [5.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 6.0 IBUs
0.6 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 8 -

Mash Schedule: BIAB, Full Body

 

[dcbw]

Half wheat for a base malt will definitely make it cloudy.

 

[nettekdl]

Add flour to the mash to make it nice and cloudy, and look into red x malt for the color you are going for.

 

[lumpher]

I think that will meet your criteria, and still be drinkable.

 

[MaxStout]

You could make an Irish red, and replace part of the base malt with wheat.

 

[fat-buddha]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

The Red X Malt looks interesting. I could simplify and just for 50% Pale Wheat, 50% Red X. Would simplify the trip to the LHBS.

As well, an Irish Red is in the plans. Biggest problem is so many beers to be made, so little time. This is where it's nice to be brewing 5 liters at a time so I can get to drinking them as well.

 

[JKaranka]

Buy some brewers' caramel or sinamar. When you have the beer in a demijohn you can adjust the colour by adding a drop or two. Can't fail that way.

 

[fat-buddha]

Well just brewed the recipe as above with just some slight tweaks (bit more wheat and less pale malt) to meet my ingredients and a small scale back on the ABV.

Missed OG badly, was supposed to be 1.041 and reading is 1.030. I don't mind the mild, but the yeast better get the job done as that's approaching too mild territory.

 

[fat-buddha]

As a note to anyone looking at the above recipe, what is in the fermenter did not turn out red, it's brown.

Daughter is still happy though as she says it looks like chocolate milk.

 

[IslandLizard]

Well just brewed the recipe as above with just some slight tweaks (bit more wheat and less pale malt) to meet my ingredients and a small scale back on the ABV.

Missed OG badly, was supposed to be 1.041 and reading is 1.030. I don't mind the mild, but the yeast better get the job done as that's approaching too mild territory.

Sorry to hear your OG came in low. So many homebrewers using a larger percentage of wheat malt report this issue of low OG / low mash efficiency. I think the problem lies in the crush. Most (LHBS) mills will pass the smaller wheat kernels through without cracking them, unless you narrow the gap significantly. Passing through twice doesn't crush them any better, of course. I found a 0.024-0.026" gap to be about the right width for small kernels (e.g., wheat, rye) and flaked goods. I always mill those separately from barley.

As a note to anyone looking at the above recipe, what is in the fermenter did not turn out red, it's brown.

Daughter is still happy though as she says it looks like chocolate mile.

That amount of Caramunich makes it brown as well as the Special B and C120. I think for a true red ale, those darker specialty grains should be kept to a bare minimum with just enough roasted Barley for the red hue without it tasting roasty. That "red color" is pretty subtle (and subjective) anyway.

 

[fat-buddha]

Sorry to hear your OG came in low. So many homebrewers using a larger percentage of wheat malt report this issue of low OG / low mash efficiency. I think the problem lies in the crush. Most (LHBS) mills will pass the smaller wheat kernels through without cracking them, unless you narrow the gap significantly. Passing through twice doesn't crush them any better, of course. I found a 0.024-0.026" gap to be about the right width for small kernels (e.g., wheat, rye) and flaked goods. I always mill those separately from barley.

There was issues with the mill at the LHBS when I did this batch. They got a new one from another shop (setup on a box) and it wouldn't mill anything hard (both the Caramunich and the Wheat). I ended up using their other mill and it did seem to crack the wheat husk, but I likely should've done a second run through just to be sure, but there were people stacked up behind me for the mill and my daughter was getting impatient.

Second to that was that I realized afterwards that due to some personal stuff I had to attend to while it mashing that I didn't stir it once. Likely didn't help.

That amount of Caramunich makes it brown as well as the Special B and C120. I think for a true red ale, those darker specialty grains should be kept to a bare minimum with just enough roasted Barley for the red hue without it tasting roasty. That "red color" is pretty subtle (and subjective) anyway.

Yeah, I was worried it wouldn't be red, but the grains were in part chosen for the fact that I could use them in a Dark Mild, which is what I'd been planning for a next beer. I'd like a nice red beer, but the bottom line for this batch is that the daughter is happy with the color.

 

[fat-buddha]

So I bottled this yesterday after two weeks.. OG was 1.012 which got the beer down as low as I could've hoped.

The hydrometer sample was tasty and the beer was a nice hazy copper. Much lighter than it looked in the fermenter. Had a really nice aroma, which based on description was the traits of the Special B. Looks like it will be a very nice beer after a bit of conditioning in the bottle.