Wanting to do a Wheat Beer and thought I’d post this and see what you all think. I’m new to brewing and trying to try out hops and see what they do:
6 lbs Wheat Malt Extract
1 oz Liberty Hops @ 60 min
OG: 1.044
IBU: 11Oh and using Wyeast 1010
[quote=“FireMedic218”]Wanting to do a Wheat Beer and thought I’d post this and see what you all think. I’m new to brewing and trying to try out hops and see what they do:
6 lbs Wheat Malt Extract
1 oz Liberty Hops @ 60 min
OG: 1.044
IBU: 11[/quote]
That should work, although at 11 IBUs you probably won’t taste the hops.
Looks fine, although I’d add a pound of sugar as well. Regular old table sugar will work fine for this. If you’ve read anything about “cidery” flavors, ignore this – it simply is not true. If you haven’t, then forget I mentioned it.
11 IBU is fine for this style. But add a little more if you feel like it. This will be a very refreshing wheat ale. Should only take 4-5 days to finish fermenting, and ready to bottle immediately – you do NOT need to transfer it to secondary unless you want it to clear a bit and have less haze and yeast solids, but this is totally optional for this style.
Let us know how it turned out in a couple weeks!
Sounds good I guess. You can start out subtle and adjust the recipe. Keep good notes and adjust until you are really happy with it. That’s how I do my recipes.
[quote=“dmtaylo2”]Looks fine, although I’d add a pound of sugar as well. Regular old table sugar will work fine for this. If you’ve read anything about “cidery” flavors, ignore this – it simply is not true. If you haven’t, then forget I mentioned it.
11 IBU is fine for this style. But add a little more if you feel like it. This will be a very refreshing wheat ale. Should only take 4-5 days to finish fermenting, and ready to bottle immediately – you do NOT need to transfer it to secondary unless you want it to clear a bit and have less haze and yeast solids, but this is totally optional for this style.
Let us know how it turned out in a couple weeks![/quote]
I am brewing the N.B. Tallgrass Halcyon wheat soon. Would you recommend a pound of regular sugar to that also? What will that change in the beer?
Okay, I’ve looked up the recipe for that one… looks like it is a partial mash recipe, with the mash being 151 F for 1 hour. Personally I would recommend lowering the mash temperature to about 149 F which will compensate slightly for any unfermentables in your extract. Other than that, brew according to the recipe. You will not need to add any sugar to that recipe.
What simple sugar does for you is it adds alcohol. Most but not all malt extracts contain unfermentable sugars, and that is due to the manufacturing process. If you replace some of the specified extract with sugar, then you will replace some of that unfermentable sugar with 100% fermentable sugar, thereby allowing the final gravity to drop to where it optimally should be for the style. I was an extract brewer for many years, and I found that at least with the extracts available at that time (this was about 10 years ago), my beers would never get a final gravity anything lower than 1.018, no matter how much yeast I used or which yeast strain I used or whatever. But if I knew then what I know now, I would have replaced some extract with simple sugar to lower that gravity down to as low as like 1.012 or whatever. Maybe not always that low, but better than 1.018. Alternatively, you can keep your final gravity at 1.018-1.020 and just add a pound of sugar to any recipe, which thereby jacks up the alcohol level and essentially the original gravity instead of messing with the final gravity. So, for instance, if you add a pound of sugar to a recipe that is supposed to have an original gravity of 1.048, the original gravity will actually become 1.057, and then you’ll get your 5% alcohol that you wanted instead of only 3.6-4.0% if you hadn’t added the sugar.
But with partial mash, this is all pretty much moot, as long as you mash your grains at 148-150 F for 1 hour. For a fuller, creamier beer, you can use whatever mash temperature is specified. If you like a chewier, fuller beer, go ahead and mash at 151 or 152 F or whatever is specified. A couple of degrees actually makes a pretty small difference anyway. But it might give you the edge over your buddy who follows the same recipe but mashes at a higher temperature.
In the end, it is all up to you and what you learn from your own experience. Take my advice, and anyone else’s, with proper grains of salt. If you beer turns out great without any adjustments, then let that experience be your guide.
Thank you for your reply. The Tallgrass kit I have is all grain. I jumped into all grain after only two extract kits. This will be only my sixth all grain kit. Whew! There is so much to learn. I feel overwhelmed when I read about yeast starters, water chemistry, Ph and such. That’s another thing, when is a protein rest necessary. I had two kits that I had to step mash. This tallgrass requires only a one step mash. Yeast starters I use 1700ml to a cup of DME. Thanks for your help!!
Chances are the step mash you did with your other kits was outdated info and unnecessary for the beer.
I was in your same shoes about a year ago, but I had done probably 20 kits using extract and partial mash. Switching to AG seemed so daunting, but after a year, real easy
I probably jumped into all grain too soon, but there is no turning back now. I have too much invested in kettles and burners. I made a Brewers Best kit with “steeping” grains and thought all grain would be fun to do. I went into it knowing nothing. I really depend on this forum for information, and it has been helpful.
I made a Dead Guy clone from Apex that was really good, all the others are just ok. I made the Patersbier kit from our host. That took a step mash. Is that because of the pilsner malt? I made a wheat kit, my first ever brew, a Dunkelweizen from Brewer Best. All I can say is it was drinkable. It had a funky metallic taste to it. I have no clue where that came from. Maybe I should have loaded it with a tone of sugar!! I was looking for a Franziskaner Dunkel taste, but it was nowhere close. :shock:
A step mash is never necessary, IMHO. A protein rest is especially unnecessary and can actually hurt an otherwise good beer. It attacks the same proteins that are responsible for good head retention and mouthfeel, leaving you with a watery headless brew. No thanks.
I am safe just doing a single mash @150 degrees no matter what the directions say to do? That would be a lot easier for me since I mash over a burner. The last mash I did, I kept drawing wort from the ball valve and dumping it back into the kettle. It helped with temperature control. Doing a step mash was tough for me. :cheers:
Merry Christmas!
Bingo. What you just said there is appropriate for about 95% of all beer recipes.
Merry Christmas to you and to all.
Thanks Dave. And a very very Mary Christmas to you , And to the whole home brewing community!!
Woohoo! Can’t wait to brew!
Hey guys… I’ve made an adjustment and going to brew this extract recipie on Friday.
6lbs - Wheat LME
1oz Liberty @ 60 min
1oz Liberty @ 30 min
Wyeast 1010 pitched at 68 and it will prob ferment around 65.
According to the software its showing:
FG - 1.010
IBU - 21
Basing on the numbers alone I’m thinking it will be a balanced tasting beer, not too bitter and not too sweet either.
I’ve been reading a bit on only using 30% to 50% of the LME at 60 then adding the rest around 20 to 15 min before flameout to keep the color light… I noticed on the first wheat I did, I added all 6lbs at 60 and the beer is a bit darker than a standard american wheat, looked like an amber.
Happy brewing guys… talk to you all soon.
Nothing wrong with an amber wheat beer.
