I just brewed an all grain with 2 lb. Belgian Aromatic, 2 lb. English Floor Malted Maris Otter, 2 lb. Briess CaraPils, 1 lb. British Golden Promise, 1 lb. Rahr White Wheat; I broke my hydrometer though so I have no idea of ABV, any one care to take a guess? Based on effect I’m thinking only about 4% (strictly non-scientific guess). Thanks.
you dont really have a lot of fermentables there. Maybe 3-4%. How many gallons? That obviously will affect the numbers a lot.
2 lb. of carapils??? :shock:
5 gallon batch. And yes 2 lb of carapils. It’s a recipe I made from scratch and am working on batch by batch. Made it for my G/F; also used some spices and citruses. Notes: needs more body, a bit bready for my taste, would have liked higher ABV (more base malt). I used White Labs Euro Ale yeast, which I would use again. Open to suggestions.
2 pounds of carapils should give you plenty of body. What exactly are you shooting for with this beer? I can’t even determine a relative style.
Maybe mouthfeel would be a better discriptor than body, anyway. My G/F really likes citrusy, spiced wheat beers, Sam Adams White Ale, Blue Moon, Shock Top, Kona’s wheat (can’t think of the name), doesn’t matter to her. I, in general, really dislike wheat beers (although Sam Adams Winter is pretty d*** good); so, I was trying to come up with a recipe that would taste similar to an American Wheat, without an overwhelming wheat flavor. In terms of flavor and satisfying her it was spot on, but as a brewer I’m disappointed.
My last IPA that used 1.25# of Carapils for un-fermentables and body was more than enough for a 70 IBU 1.065 OG beer and I used a very light amount of aromatic like 0.20# The reason why is because aromatic will lend an exaggerated malty aroma/ flavor to a beer so you want to control the amount so the beer does not get overblown. “Used at rates of up to 10%, Aromatic malt will lend a distinct, almost exaggerated malt aroma and flavor to the finished Ales and Lagers”
The Carapils should typically be used in ranges of 5-20% I find that I will typically only use it to balance IPA’s as there is plenty of body in other recipes when using close to 100% base malt and in heavy usage situations it will leave high FG’s which will lend to “sweet” tastes and finishes in beers.
As an aside your in the learning curve regarding formulation but a lot of times when viewing/ making American wheat’s it is typically close to 50% Base/ 50% Wheat and this changes slightly for wits. You may have already run some kits and are striking out now, but if you haven’t tried some of Northern Brewers AM wheat or Wit kits there as solid as you get.
Here is the recipe for Teh AM Wheat:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documenta ... nWheat.pdfHere is the recipe for Teh Witbier:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documenta ... itbier.pdfIf you ended up with 5 gallons in the kettle after the boil and hit 70% efficiency you may have ekked out 1.039 OG Now with the higher amount of Carapils as mentioned before instead of an FG of 1.010(ish) you may end up at 1.015(ish) So depending on yeast performance and other you should be sittting on 3.20%@1.015 FG-3.80%@1.010 FG These percents are in ABV
Wild guess is about 2.5 to 3% ABV. But I could be wrong.
ABV or OG?
Thanks for all the comments and insights. I will keep your helpful hints in mind ItsPossible.
