I am looking to brew a nice, clean & sessionable American Wheat and am looking for some suggestions on specialty grains to steep/partial mash. Right now I am thinking I will use 5lbs of Wheat DME, bitter with Magnum & use some Mosaic Hops for aroma. I am going to ferment with Wyeast 1056 (mainly because I used the 1056 from an APA I brewed as my trial run for yeast harvesting…now I have 4 mason jars of the stuff I need to use).
My first though was to use something like 0.5lbs of Honey Malt & either 0.5lbs of Biscuit Malt or Victory Malt. I am not sure with just a pound of specialty grain how long I would need to keep it at temp for mashing. Maybe 40 minutes at 154F? I would be doing that part on the stove so it would be a little inexact, playing with the burner constantly trying to keep it at temp.
Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions or past experiences with specialty grains in an Am. Wheat I would love to hear them.
Thanks All! :cheers:
You don’t want to overdo it with specialty grains in an American Wheat. It will kind of defeat the purpose of brewing a wheat beer. I’d say half a pound of Honey Malt at the most, and that’s about it.
I have a simple and delicious honey wheat recipe that I brew. It’s a favorite of mine. Actually it’s funny that this thread came up, because I just ordered the ingredients to brew it for the summer!
Here’s the recipe:
CTB Schweddy Balz Honey Wheat
Fermentables
6lbs Wheat LME
1lb Orange Blossom Honey
.5lbs Honey Malt
Hops
.75 oz Mt Hood (6% AAU) @ 45 min
.75 oz Mt Hood (6% AAU) @ 15 min
1oz Centennial @ 1 min
Yeast
US-05
*Notes: if doing a partial boil, add half the extract at 60 minutes, and the rest at flameout.
Varying sources say yes and no as to if Victory has the diastatic power to self convert. If it does, it right on the edge. I don’t believe the honey malt has any. So .25-.50% of 2row or wheat malt should be added for to give the enzymes needed for conversion.
Check you oven to see what the lowest temp it will maintain. If it’s low enough in the 150’s, put the pot in there.
Do you have a picnic cooler of appropriate size to hold your pot? Wrap the pot with towels and stick it inside to maintain temp.
IMO the best American wheat beers have no specialty grains.
If I were to do anything, I’d maybe consider a bit of Aromatic to beef up the malty aroma/flavor, but that’s probably it. Since you’re brewing with extract, I wouldn’t add any caramel because (I may be wrong, but) I believe extracts are prepared with a bit of caramel already.
Thanks Guys. My biggest issue is I feel like going with JUST the Wheat DME will result in a beer that is a little too thin. So I am not 100% sure what I am going to do yet although I do appreciate all of your input. I am leaning towards maybe 0.33lbs of Honey Malt & 0.33lbs of 2-Row. Maybe toss a little Aromatic in there as well as I like the idea of beefing up the malty flavor. This is my fist venture into a wheat beer so I would like to stay as true to style as possible.
