Wheat Caramel Malt In An English Bitter?

[Bribie G]

Buddy has given me a kilo of WCM - I'm about to run up a quaffing special bitter and I have run out of Crystal malt, was going to trick it up with some Carafa and / or choc, but has anyone used WCM in an English Bitter? I was thinking of Base malt plus 200g. I find Hefes to be mouth puckering and too 'sharp' to my taste, and just concerned that WCM might give too much of a 'bite' to an English.

edit: also I wonder if it could give a bit of colour plus wheat to an Australian Pale Ale / sparkling, sort of two birds with one stone?

 

[bconnery]

Buddy has given me a kilo of WCM - I'm about to run up a quaffing special bitter and I have run out of Crystal malt, was going to trick it up with some Carafa and / or choc, but has anyone used WCM in an English Bitter? I was thinking of Base malt plus 200g. I find Hefes to be mouth puckering and too 'sharp' to my taste, and just concerned that WCM might give too much of a 'bite' to an English.

edit: also I wonder if it could give a bit of colour plus wheat to an Australian Pale Ale / sparkling, sort of two birds with one stone?

I doubt you'd notice the 'bite' at that sort of amounts. I think either of those could work.

 

[haysie]

i added a small amount to my recent aussie rice lager for a little color, havent tried it yet (still in the cube) I agree with other poster, in such small amounts, you wont be getting any "mouth puckering sourness".
I also have an addition albeit small in a dunkel. Give it ago! You know you will!

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Weyerman's Carabohemian from Ross - works a treat. Offers a little bit of toffee, lots of colour and a malty mouthfeel, without being "brown" in flavour. Chuck in extra hops, if you want the maltiness offset a little, or leave as is, if you just want a basic malty ale in the british fashion. Up to you.

I am the only wheat lover I know, so making wheat dominated beers isn't a great idea (and they make me bloat and or fart). But I can get away with around 10-15% wheat in any profile and use a bitter hop to offset the sweetness of its fruit-drive. No-one seems to know that they have wheat in them.

Mildura Storm Cloud Ale is an example of an amber ale with a fair wheat whack, but I can drink a few of these without the aforementioned side effects. :wacko:

 

[earle]

When I recently made a dark ale/porter I grabbed choc wheat malt from my supplies instead of choc chit malt but was very pleased with the result. I reckon give it a go - it will add complexity to your brew but I don't think it will taste too wheaty.

 

[Kai]

Buddy has given me a kilo of WCM - I'm about to run up a quaffing special bitter and I have run out of Crystal malt, was going to trick it up with some Carafa and / or choc, but has anyone used WCM in an English Bitter? I was thinking of Base malt plus 200g. I find Hefes to be mouth puckering and too 'sharp' to my taste, and just concerned that WCM might give too much of a 'bite' to an English.

edit: also I wonder if it could give a bit of colour plus wheat to an Australian Pale Ale / sparkling, sort of two birds with one stone?

A few thoughts come to my mind, not sure how to structure them so I'll run in chronological order:

- I've never used andy crystal wheat.
- I would happily use it in an English bitter. On its own in an ordinary, or with a touch of choc in a special.
- I doubt the flavour profile of many hefeweizens is due to carawheat. They're more due to the the large amount of malted wheat, the overall lightness of grist composition and the yeast strains.
- Although I've never used it, I think ordinary wheat malt would give much better wheat character to an Aussie ale.
- And I'm wondering if anyone else has used carawheat much and found it to have much wheat character??

 

[Peter Wadey]

A few thoughts come to my mind, not sure how to structure them so I'll run in chronological order:

- I've never used andy crystal wheat.
- I would happily use it in an English bitter. On its own in an ordinary, or with a touch of choc in a special.
- I doubt the flavour profile of many hefeweizens is due to carawheat. They're more due to the the large amount of malted wheat, the overall lightness of grist composition and the yeast strains.
- Although I've never used it, I think ordinary wheat malt would give much better wheat character to an Aussie ale.
- And I'm wondering if anyone else has used carawheat much and found it to have much wheat character??

Hi Kai,
I have in a few beers inc. a Bitter or two. It is not anywhere near as sweet.
Agree about lack of relationship between Carawheat & 'mouth puckering', 'sharp' tasting wheat beers.
I also think you'll get more wheat character from wheat malt in an Aussie ale than from crystal wheat and not just because you would be using a higher %.

P

 

[Bribie G]

Update:
I ran up a quick UK Best Bitter for quaffing, with Golden Promise, some sugaz and 400g Wheat Caramel. Northern Brewer/Challenger and Irish ale yeast.

It's only been bottled for about 5 days but it's really excellent, no 'twang' as I feared, and if anything it gives more of a caramelly back-flavour than ordinary Crystal or Caraaroma, without the sometimes cloying sweetness. I'd pay for a pint of it in a UK pub, WCM will definitely be in my pantry from now on !

BTW I've bottled off most of it for the Bris July Case swap so the swappees can taste the results.

:beerbang:

 

[JoeG]

I normally use weyermann Carared in my house ales. When I ran out recently, I grabbed a bag of Wheat Caramel that had been sitting around for a year or so and used it in the same amounts. I must say I am very happy with the results, so much so that the Carared might get put aside for a little while.

It adds more colour than Carared, and the flavour whilst different is still very pleasing (well to me anyway).
The photo is the colour I got with 5% Wheat Caramel and the base malt half'n'half Pils and Ale. Yumyum!