Let me apologize for what might seem like an basic question, however, I’m new to the home-brewing experience and want to reproduce, as best I can, this WEISSBIER (HEFEWEIZEN–http://byo.com/malt/item/1574-weissbier) recipe. So, my question is, should we be using a wheat DME, or a Light DME, for our yeast starter? In other words, do you always use wheat DME for starters when making wheat beers? Or, does it matter? Sorry if this has been discussed previously.
Thanks,
Home-brewer want-to-be
Dave
If you are pitching the whole starter and you want the beer to be strictly within the at least 50% wheat rule, sure. If doing otherwise would throw off your %s. Especially if you already have it. Or if you aren’t that strict, are plan on crashing and decanting the starter, then no.
If it makes you feel better to use wheat DME for your starter do it. But for an (assuming) 1 L starter, even if you pitch the entire contents, it’s just not going to make any real difference either or except, maybe, to you personally. because you will know what you did. There is no one on the planet who could tell you used wheat DME instead of regular DME in a 1 L starter for a 5 gallon batch. The yeast don’t care either.
“If you are pitching the whole starter and you want the beer to be strictly within the at least 50% wheat rule, sure. If doing otherwise would throw off your %s. Especially if you already have it. Or if you aren’t that strict, are plan on crashing and decanting the starter, then no.”
Yes, I’d like it to be 50%. But I also plan on crashing and decanting…why would that make a difference?
“If it makes you feel better to use wheat DME for your starter do it. But for an (assuming) 1 L starter, even if you pitch the entire contents, it’s just not going to make any real difference either or except, maybe, to you personally. because you will know what you did. There is no one on the planet who could tell you used wheat DME instead of regular DME in a 1 L starter for a 5 gallon batch. The yeast don’t care either.”
Yes, it’s a 1.5L starter and a 5 gal batch. Glad to hear that technically, it’s irrelevant, which DME is used. That said, I’ll probable use Wheat DME because I can and because I’m trying to reproduce an existing recipe.
Thanks for your help! I’ve much to learn.
I believe Jim was pointing out the difference in volumes you would be adding.
1.5l of non-wheat DME would dilute the wheat level in main batch (slightly). If you decanted, you would add mostly yeast very little of the starter beer.
Works either way and no one would notice which was done.
Paul
Yup. I’ll even go one step further. I’ve had some extract 50/50 wheat beers that were pretty difficult to tell there was any wheat in them.
I made a hefeweizen using 100% wheat DME way back when I started brewing. I was very pleased with the results.
I’m pretty sure that “wheat” extract is already 50/50.
most likely most brands of wheat DME are blends of wheat and barley malt, arguably about 50/50 or there abouts. You absolutely should be using 100% wheat DME if you are making an extract wheat beer unless you know for certain the extract is 100% wheat. And not many brewers want to use 100% wheat for the obvious lautering problems, so don’t expect extract manufactures to be any different. Any extract recipe that uses wheat DME as only a half the recipe should be questioned.
Yeah, the Munton’s I used I think is 55% Wheat, 45% Barley.
The percentage should be on the label.
I’ve seen some 65/35 not sure I’ve seen any 100% wheat
Good to know. Didn’t used to be.
I’ve never seen any 100% wheat extracts either. Always seen 60/40 or 50/50.
Is the question whether it will be an issue for the yeast if the starter doesn’t have wheat? If so, the answer is no, it doesn’t matter to the yeast.
Maybe it’s vendor/manufacturer specific. Or maybe it’s more recent. I have no idea.
I haven’t bought Munton’s in a while, but I know Breiss has the % on the label.