Weizen-Wit-Wheat -Ale/Lager

Grains, malts, hops, yeast, water and other ingredients used to brew. Recipe reviews and suggestions.

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axis714
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Weizen-Wit-Wheat -Ale/Lager

Post by axis714 »

Im currently in the process of designing a wheat beer with the ingrediets I have on hand, I can go AG or partial mash and Im mostly a German style Lager brewer and not real confident in my abilities to design a weizen recipe.
Does it seem correct to go about half n half 50/50 ratio of wheat malt to 2 row?
Example 5 lbs. white wheat- 5 lbs. pale malt- maybe a few ozs of special B maybe some carapils, little crystal....
Im just unsure if 50/50 wheat malt will be overkill for a typical American Wheat or Weizen type ale/lager.
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slothrob
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Post by slothrob »

Around 50/50 is right. Some brewers drop the wheat to 40%, probably to make sure they don't get a stuck sparge. Others up the wheat to 60%, but you'd want to add rice hulls, or you're risking a stuck sparge.

4 or 5 pound of each is in the neighborhood. Standard wheat beer is around 1.048, so adjust the amounts to hit around there.

I've seen crystal malt or carapils in wheat beer recipes, but it's not traditional. The melanoidins in wheat beer are traditionally formed by decoction, but you can simulate this a somewhat by swapping out a pound of the 2 row (Pilsner Malt is a goos choice for this, but US or Canadian 2-row will do for an American Wheat) for a pound of Munich Malt (I'd use German Munich, if you can get it). A 131
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axis714
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Post by axis714 »

Thanks brutha,
I appreciate the response. Im merely useing the pale malt because its the sack of base I have on hand, Ill go about 50-50 with the wheat then, and omit the crystal, If I had munich id sure swap it in....but what ive got is Gambrinus honey malt- special B-carapils-flaked wheat-and flaked maize,
choc. roasted barley and black patent.....bassically everything I dont need for a wheat beer. Of course. So Ill stick with the 50/50 toss in a pound of flaked wheat i dunno maybe a few ozs of honey malt and call it a day....now for a preference call, the hops I have on hand,,,,all the nobles, chinook,columbus,cascade,perle ,magnum....Im thinking maybe hop it as a pale ale(perle-mag-cascade) any preferences here, as I said Ive never brewed a wheat beer b4...I suppose the German version would be like(hallertauer throughout or maybe tettnanger?)
Would mashing thin maybe 2 qts per pound help with the sparge any?
Ive heard wheat mashes are sticky.
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Post by jctull »

An American Wheat will generally use American varieties of noble hops, such as Liberty, Mt. Hood, etc., but other American varieties are also used.

I suggest you look over the style guidelines by the Beer Judge Certification Program. There has been a lot of work on developing those over the past 20 years or so. Ingredients are covered for each style. Here is the description for American Wheat.
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axis714
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Post by axis714 »

Thks for the help- According to the style guidelines and the help I received here I came up with my twist on the style and hopefully I can get a clean crisp spring time lager out of it for garden tilling season (spring fever has set in) Im going to do 4back to back 5 gal batches and fill all of my cornies and let em lager away til I cant stand it. I may change the hop variety each brew to see what works best.

Otay BuckWheat Lager

Pale Malt 5 1/2#
Wheat Malt 4#
Special Roast 1/2#

Hallertau 4.2%AA pellet 1 Oz.@ 60
Hallertau 4.2%AA pellet 1/2 Oz.@ 30
Hallertau 4.2%AA pellet 1/2 Oz.@ 5

Saflager 34/70 Weihenstephan strain Lager Yeast
Ferment @ 50 deg.F approx 2 weeks
Lager @ 38 Deg.F for 2 weeks
carbonate at 2.5 volumes

O.G. 1.055
SRM 6
IBU 23.5
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