Assistance with Wheat DME & Wheat Malt

[jhay]

Just cracked a bottle of my 7th brew which was an extract with grains. It include 250g of wheat DME & 250g of wheat malt both being 6.67% ea of total ingredients. The head and taste out of the bottle is great , certainly the best head of any of my earlier brews.Could probably age a bit in the bottle,currently 19 days but is still drinkable and tasty. Probably drink half now and keep half for later. (Later is often now)
Problem is that my normal supplier Craft brewers is out of stock of wheat DME. Should I up the Wheat malt from 320g (7.35%) to something greater or will the current amount satisfy the head retention or should I source source Wheat DME elsewhere..
This brew is my 9th and will be a different recipe to my 7th and 8th which were the same. It should be noted the wheat addition wasn't called for in the original recipes but included for head retention and this has been a success.

 

[carniebrew]

When you say wheat malt, are you talking about some kind of crystal wheat malt that doesn't need mashing? I believe specialty grain/crystal malt (barley or wheat) aids in head retention, so if you don't have wheat DME, either increase the amount of crystal wheat malt you're steeping, or use something like carapils or crystal 60 in its place.

You might even find that just going with the 250g of crystal wheat would be enough to give you that head retention...I think my first extract with spec grain brew had only 250gm of crystal and the head was fine.

 

[jhay]

The malt I'm using is Barrett Burston Wheat Malt and in the previous 2 brews was Briess Wheat malt Extract.The combination of both has allowed a creamy head which and lasting head.

 

[carniebrew]

I'm thinking that wheat malt needs mashing in order to convert the starch to sugar. Depending on how you steep you could be fluking some of that conversion I guess....but you're bordering on a 'partial mash' method here rather than an extract with spec grain. It's probably not doing your beer any harm, but replacing it with something like carawheat (which only needs steeping) might give you a more predictable result for future brews.

I both steep spec grain and add wheat LME to almost every beer I've made, so I'm not sure which of those two are providing the good head I get on my beers.

 

[manticle]

Wheat malt does need mashing.

If your steeping temps are between 60 and 70 ish you'll be converting the starches. If you are mashing wheat malt then just use all grain for that portion (and yes it's a partial mash).