so i was thinking of making an American Wheat beer, i wanted to make it hoppier than normal. I like the balance between the wheat and hops. Does this recipe look good?
6.6 pounds, wheat malt extract
1–1/2 pounds, dark dry malt
1–1/2 pounds, crystal malt
1 pound, wheat malt
1/2 pound, wheat flakes
1/4 pound, chocolate malt
2 ounces, of Hallertauer hops (Alpha 4.2) for full boil
1/2 ounce, Saaz hops (Alpha ??) for 20 minutes
1/2 ounce, Saaz hops to finish
yeast
I don’t know why you want to add dark extract and chocolate malt, but that’s a personal choice I guess. 1 1/2 lb. of crystal is a bad idea in extract beer. There are plenty of unfermentables in there already. You’ll need to do a minimash for the wheat malt and flaked wheat. The wheat may may have enough distatic power to convert the flakes, but if it was me I’d add at least .5 lb. of pale malt to be safe.
5gal, and yeah i’m not to concerned with staying the official guidelines. This will be my 3rd attempt at a homebrew and my friend will joining me this time and we both like wheat beers, but wanted a little more “bite” to them.
I don’t know why you want to add dark extract and chocolate malt, but that’s a personal choice I guess. 1 1/2 lb. of crystal is a bad idea in extract beer. There are plenty of unfermentables in there already. You’ll need to do a minimash for the wheat malt and flaked wheat. The wheat may may have enough distatic power to convert the flakes, but if it was me I’d add at least .5 lb. of pale malt to be safe.
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So if I sub the dark malt with pale malt that would still get a “amber color” and then decrease the crystal malt does that sound better? Would you add anything else?
So if I sub the dark malt with pale malt that would still get a “amber color” and then decrease the crystal malt does that sound better? Would you add anything else?
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Yeah, you’ll still get an amber color. What you had originally would have made it real dark. I don’t really have any other suggestions about what to add since I can’t really tell what you want to end up with.
yeah we wanted to do more of and American style wheat vs Belgian , but it seems like this recipe is more like a dunkelwiezen vs an American wheat.
hence the confusion, i think i will go with a dunkelweizen style.
However, does anybody have a good American Wheat that could be hopped up?
American wheat is a pretty wide open style so you can do what ever you want.
You’re first recipe would look a lot more like Wheat Stout than American Wheat in my opinion.
If you want an American Wheat style, I do one that’s AG but you could take a shot at it as an extract. I also wouldn’t bother with a bunch of specialty grains, just a bit for colour should do.
I’d start with 7 or 8 lbs wheat extract (which as I understand is actually 50/50 wheat/pale or pilsner).
1 - 2 oz black patent added to the water as you heat it up but remove it before it boils.
1/2 oz magnum or other high alpha bittering hop
1 oz saaz or hallertauer (or you could go with an American style hop such as Cascade, centennial etc.)
1/2 oz saaz to at finish.
Personally, this beer needs to be clean and balanced. I think your original recipe was a bit too complex. I’d start simple and then modify. You say you wan’t hoppy but do you want bitter or flavour? I’d ramp up my late additions to get more hops up front. Sort of an APA with wheat instead of pure pale.
As for yeast, my go-to for American wheat is WLP001.
First things first: a dunkleweizen is a German style not Belgian. Also, I agree with Denny that you don’t need all that crystal malt, especially in conjunction with a dark malt extract. The problem with dark malt extract is that you don’t know what the original brewer put into the wort in the first place - he may have already loaded it up with crystal and roasted malts. Best to use a light malt extract and then add specialty color malts to get the color and flavor you want, otherwise you are shooting in the dark (no pun intended). All grain brewers use pale malts as the base malt for the majority of their grist, unless we are talking something like Munich or Vienna, in which case you would need to verify if the extract is 100% Munich or Vienna.
So in your case, if you want an “American dunkleweizen” let’s say you go with a pale wheat base malt extract (most of which are 50% wheat and 50% pils, or there abouts) for the majority of your grist and a mini mash with Munich/wheat malt/and chocolate wheat (or chocolate malt) and about 5% crystal malt such as cara Munich. You’ll have to figure out the calculations for the grain bill, of course, but I think this approach not only will give you more control over the outcome of the final beer but will also give you something much closer to what you actually want to drink.
I’ve done a few all grain versions of this American Wheat, which my is not my favorite style, but my wife really likes it (along w/ hefes and wits). I do all grain versions of this, so this is a stab at an extract version:
6.5 lbs Liquid Wheat Extract
8oz Munich Malt
4 oz Crystal 10
1 oz Tettnang @ 60min
1 oz Cascade 10 min
1 oz Cascade 5 min
Safale US-05/ Wyeast 1056/ WLP 001
My AG recipe changes all the time, but this would be one of the versions I’ve done. I mostly change the hops and try different combos, but to match my wife’s requests I keep the IBU’s low and try to give it a citrus aroma and flavor to it. I’ve also used Kolsch yeast (Wyeast 2565) once and it came out great, but then I guess it wouldn’t be an “American” wheat. Also, you may want to add half the extract in the beginning of the boil and the rest with about 20-15 minutes left in the boil to keep the color lower…unless you are going for a darker color.
I appreciate all the useful info I. think I may do a 5 gal american wheat. And a 3 gal “american” dunkelweizen. I found that my knowledge of beer types is lacking since I began to homebrew. I enjoy learning and being educated by the patient experts on this site
Another good way to learn about beer styles is “Designing Great Beers” by Ray Daniels. It has gotten me brewing beer styles that I didn’t know very well. I would say its a must for making your own recipes.
I learned about styles by reading the BJCP style guidelines. I’d read the description of the various styles and if one looked interesting I’d go get 1 or 2 of the commercial examples to taste.