Panama Red American Wheat

Beer Recipes
1

Looking for a little input on this. Want to make a Reddish colored American wheat with lemony/citrus hop profile so this is what I came up with on first concept. Using the Melanoiden for the red color and not getting the degree of red but afaid any more will make this too malty or do I have enough hop to balance? Any suggested adjustments are appreciated, I am not really a “to style” guy so the ABV and SRM are not overly important but I want this to be a nice summer satisfier, thanks!

Recipe: Panama Red Wheat
Brewer: Commune Brewing Company
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 8.97 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.47 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.25 gal 
Bottling Volume: 5.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 6.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 42.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.2 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
15.1 oz              Rice Hulls (Briess) (0.0 SRM)            Adjunct      1        6.6 %       
5 lbs 11.0 oz        Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM)          Grain        2        40.1 %       
5 lbs 10.8 oz        White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)              Grain        3        40.0 %       
13.3 oz              Melanoidin (Weyermann) (30.0 SRM)        Grain        4        5.9 %       
11.4 oz              Rye Malt (Briess) (3.7 SRM)              Grain        5        5.0 %       
5.3 oz                Munich (Cargill) (9.5 SRM)              Grain        6        2.3 %       
0.50 oz              Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] - First Wort 60.0  Hop          7        18.1 IBUs   
0.33 oz              Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min  Hop          8        5.9 IBUs     
0.33 oz              Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min  Hop          9        4.7 IBUs     
0.25 oz              Ahtanum [6.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min        Hop          10      2.5 IBUs     
0.31 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)              Fining        11      -           
0.50 oz              Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min    Hop          12      6.0 IBUs     
0.33 oz              Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min  Hop          13      2.8 IBUs     
0.25 oz              Ahtanum [6.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min        Hop          14      1.5 IBUs     
0.25 oz              Ahtanum [6.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop          15      0.8 IBUs     
0.25 oz              Ahtanum [6.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop          16      0.0 IBUs     
1.0 pkg              American Wheat Ale (Wyeast Labs #1010) [ Yeast        17      -           
1.25 tsp              Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days)        Other        18      -

Mash Schedule: Double Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs 2.9 oz

Name              Description                            Step Temperat Step Time   
Protein Rest      Add 3.19 gal of water at 132.1 F        122.0 F      30 min       
Saccharification  Add 2.84 gal of water at 192.6 F        152.0 F      30 min       
Mash Out          Add 2.48 gal of water at 211.0 F        168.0 F      10 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 2.16gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:

2

See what a couple of ounces of Carafa II special does to the color!  Back off to 6-8 oz of Melanoidin.

3

What about CaraRed? http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/CaraRed

(not speaking from experience, just curious if that is a good choice for color)

4

Carared is at best, red-ish.  Al 20L you have to add a ton to get any kind of color contribution.  Add Carared to improve the mouthfeel in an otherwise red beer, not for color.

5

I disagree. I think Cara Red makes a very red beer. You do have to use a lot of it, but it seems to be more fermentable than other crystal malts. But in a good portion it gives a deep red color. I don’t have my recipes right now in front of me or I would give you the percentage.

6

+1 on the CaraRed

A little body will help this beer stand out as something unique rather than a hoppy wheat beer with coloring. It will offset the spiciness of the rye and the citrus punch of the hops.

From a malt flavor standpoint, you don’t stand to gain much from the Melanoidin in this recipe. A better bet would be to split the base malt with Pale and Munich. This will make the malt profile less “muddy” and allow it to simply complement the hops, wheat, and rye.

Sounds like a great concept! Let us know how it turns out!

7

Thanks to all, I will try to plug in some cara-red. What do you mean to "split the base with pale and munich, do you mean to take the 6-row in half and addin the balance with munich? Confused

Should I take out the Melanoidin all together? Appreciate the further insight…Also, what percentage would you suggest for the carared or the carafaII?

8

An ounce of roasted barley or carafa III added to the mash at sparging time should add a lot of colour without much flavor.

9

My current IBU/SG ratio is about .73 so I am assuming I have enough IBU’s to raise the level of maltiness without winding up with an overly malty American wheat and I do not want to lose the Rye component of the beer either. Should I consider 35% 6-Row, 35% Wheat, 10% Rye and then play with the percentages of the cara-red, caramunich II or other suggestions to get the real red I am looking for, 20% of the recipe seems like a lot for these specialty grains?