Wheat Beer Idea

[hazz20]

Hey all, looking at doing my first wheat beer for a bit of a change...

1.5kg coopers LME
1kg DME
25g Saaz @ 60min
Dry Weizen Yeast
20 litres

Not sure about boil, maybe 6 litres, pretty new to this still.

Will I have enough fermentables?

Any help or suggestions would be great.

Cheers,

Hazz

 

[manticle]

Wheat is wheat because it uses malted wheat. Without that you may struggle. I would suggest at least half of your extract should be wheat malt extract (both dried and liquid are available - you may need a touch more liquid than dried).

As far as fermentables go - how do you calculate your recipes? do you use software? That will tell you if you have enough for the strength and amount you want. If you don't have any there are online calculators (google 'beer recipator') or search for ianh's extract and kit spreadhseet.

Most recipes I've seen for wheat use tettnang and or hallertauer but I don't think there's anything wrong with the saaz. Just calculate the actual IBU from that addition. Lower IBU is traditional in a German wheat (usually under 20) which you can obviously tweak to personal taste.

 

[Gavo]

Never done a wheat beer so can't comment there.

6lt boil will be fine, When I was doing extracts and partails I used to aim for the biggest boil volume I could get in my pot without it boiling over. For 6lt you will want to boil with around 600 g of the DME. By the way where is the wheat malt here?

Gavo.

 

[hazz20]

sorry guys, meant 1.5kg coopers wheat malt, d'oh!

hazz

 

[manticle]

Looks fine. Just run it through software to make sure you hit gravity and IBU etc but nice and simple. Should be a good beer.

 

[hazz20]

Thanks guys, will check out said software.

Hazz

 

[Flash_DG]

I recently made this recipe as my first extract and hop edition and I think it turned out a very nice Hefeweizen
I used all dry malt but you could easily use a can of liquid wheat and top up with light dry malt to hit your target OG

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...&recipe=815

here is a link to the thread I started also Link

 

[hazz20]

Thx for the advice peoples, had a crack at the brew tonight and had a few issues. Long story but my thermometer was out of action and i thought my wort was cool enough to tip into my fermenter but it was still high twenties according to the sticker on the fermenter. I covered it with glad wrap and stuck it in an esky with 6 frozen milk bottles to cool it down. Am going to add yeast when temp is right. Will she be ok?
Still learning. How do the pros around here bring the temp of their wort down? I had some ice water but didn't seem to work all that well, or maybe i am too impatient.
Also i added 400g instead of 600g to my 6l boil, i realised 30mins in and then chucked the extra 200g in. Will this hurt at all?

Cheers,

Hazz

 

[manticle]

While it's good to get the pitching temp down to low 20s or less, it's the ferment temp that's integral. If she's at 26 for half an hour then drops down, I doubt you'll notice much that's bad. Not ideal but not a brew killer either.

I'm far from a pro but I chill my pots in a sink full of water and frozen 2 L plastic bottles. Lid on, patience needed.

The time difference in additions of 200g won't hurt a bit. You can add malt or sugar during ferment if you need to.

 

[Flash_DG]

Hazz I completed my 6th brew on Saturday night and I was still stressing about the small stuff lol
I had 20L of water that I had in the fridge for a few days and when I added what I needed to the boiled Wort it was at 17, so I was stressing wheather to pitch or not, in the end I just did to see if it would make a difference.
I guess it didn't as it has been happily bubbling away since.
Experience will alleviate the anxiety...I hope ^_^

 

[hazz20]

Thanks flash, might need a chill pill, or two.
Having said that almost 24 hours on and there is no action in my fermenter. I use the glad wrap method and there is no krausen or froth or bubbles or anything at all. Is it worth giving it a stir up or something? I pitched wb-06 at about 22 degrees.

hazz

 

[manticle]

Check the gravity and see if it's dropped before you get too concerned. That is assuming you measured the OG? If it's dropped at all then it's fermenting.

As an aside: I'd like to apologise to any old grumpy pricks who get annoyed by me trying to answer someone's question. Feel free to step in and offer your own advice.

 

[mfdu]

wb06 is a fiesty one- 22 degrees and you should see a good krausen through the glad wrap.
sorry - did you do a yeast starter? when i've used a starter i get foamy in a couple of hours.

so, next step (as manticle says) is the gravity. well? what is it now?


an aside.
most of my wheat beers end up being fermented too low, and i miss out on the yummy clove / 'nana notes. next attempt will be kept at about 22.

 

[manticle]

Not sure about that - wheat beer I'm drinking now has both clove and banana (in balance - neither are over the top which is how I like it) and was fermented at 17. The single decoction/3 step mash may have helped pull that out of it but I reckon there's more to it than fermenting warm. Check out zwickel's mash regime for hefe's.

A lot of the above is irrelevant to kit/extract brewing so apologies if it doesn't make sense to anyone reading.

 

[hazz20]

All is good guys, action at last, bit slow but we're off and running.
Didn't do a starter so that may explain the slow start.

Thanks again guys,

Hazz

 

[Flash_DG]

All is good guys, action at last, bit slow but we're off and running.
Didn't do a starter so that may explain the slow start.

Thanks again guys,

Hazz

Fingers crossed for a top beer :beerbang:

 

[rday]

Still learning. How do the pros around here bring the temp of their wort down? I had some ice water but didn't seem to work all that well, or maybe i am too impatient.

Also not a pro, but slapping together an immersion chiller was one of my best moves. A bit of copper tubing, a couple of lengths of vinyl tubing and a sink connection, all from bunnings and you're set. I can get my boiling wort to a good temp in under 30 mins using less than 20 l of water. If you spend a bit more than I did and get more copper, you can do it even better.

 

[litre_o_cola]

Have done a few wheat's of late (impatient drinker) all with WB06, saaz and hallertau with great success.
Main pack was Wheat extract tin, 1kg LDME and hop additions. Nice, simple and very drinkable.

 

[mfdu]

yeah, i'll be throwing down a hoegarden clone today. mmmmmmm.

 

[hazz20]

You guys are makin me thirsty, still got a good few weeks before i can even think of tasting one!