American Wheat Partial Mash

[BoomerBrews]

Need some feedback on this. This is my first wheat beer and my first partial mash. Brew day is sunday. My recipe is:

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Fruit Wheat Ale

Brew Method: Extract
Style Name: American Wheat Beer
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 6 gallons


STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (standard): 4.79%
IBU (tinseth): 19.42
SRM (morey): 3.44

FERMENTABLES:
2 lb - Dry Malt Extract - Pilsen (25%)
3 lb - Dry Malt Extract - Wheat (37.5%)

STEEPING GRAINS:
2 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (25%)
1 lb - Flaked Wheat (12.5%)

HOPS:
1 oz - Willamette, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 16.81
0.5 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Aroma for 5 min, IBU: 2.61

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

I plan to add fruit to this in the secondary.Was thinking cranberry since this will be ready at christmas time, but could make it too bitter.

Any advice would be helpful.

 

[J A]

You've got 33 percent adjunct in your mash portion. That may be hard to convert. Consider switching to 1/2 lb wheat malt and 1/2 lb flaked wheat. For that matter, you could probably sub all the flaked for wheat malt and get plenty of body, head and haze. Be sure to hold at good mashing temperature for 45 minutes to an hour rather than just steeping. If you really need to do steeping rather than mashing, just use some Carapils or Carawheat or some light crystal malt and skip the base malt and wheat.
No reason not to use a full ounce of Cascade unless you only have a half to put in.
I would think cranberry would be a little tart but if you end up with relatively low attenuation and reasonable residual sweetness it might be okay. You'd have a pretty good idea after primary fermentation. If the gravity is holding at .012 or more it'll probably be sweet enough to handle the cranberry. Otherwise, use something like cherry or just throw in a little vanilla and spice for wintery flavor in your brew.

 

[BoomerBrews]

You've got 33 percent adjunct in your mash portion. That may be hard to convert. Consider switching to 1/2 lb wheat malt and 1/2 lb flaked wheat. For that matter, you could probably sub all the flaked for wheat malt and get plenty of body, head and haze. Be sure to hold at good mashing temperature for 45 minutes to an hour rather than just steeping. If you really need to do steeping rather than mashing, just use some Carapils or Carawheat or some light crystal malt and skip the base malt and wheat.
No reason not to use a full ounce of Cascade unless you only have a half to put in.
I would think cranberry would be a little tart but if you end up with relatively low attenuation and reasonable residual sweetness it might be okay. You'd have a pretty good idea after primary fermentation. If the gravity is holding at .012 or more it'll probably be sweet enough to handle the cranberry. Otherwise, use something like cherry or just throw in a little vanilla and spice for wintery flavor in your brew.

Good info, thank you. Appreciate it

 

[KC]

I've never heard of pale malt as a steeping grain. You have pils and wheat DME; I wouldn't expect similar grains to add much character.

Cranberry is tart and benefits from sweetness to offset. The 3 lbs of wheat DME should do that well, wheat carries a perception of sweet even when it finishes dry. JA's caramalt suggestion would also help out.

Cascade and Willamette pair very well together. At <20IBU it won't compete with the cranberry.

 

[BoomerBrews]

I've never heard of pale malt as a steeping grain. You have pils and wheat DME; I wouldn't expect similar grains to add much character.

Cranberry is tart and benefits from sweetness to offset. The 3 lbs of wheat DME should do that well, wheat carries a perception of sweet even when it finishes dry. JA's caramalt suggestion would also help out.

Cascade and Willamette pair very well together. At <20IBU it won't compete with the cranberry.

Would you recommend skipping the partial mash in general and going all extract with caramalt as steeping? I was planning on using 2 row to convert the flaked wheat. Like I said I’ve never done a partial mash or wheat beer. I was hoping to venture into partial mash for this.

 

[BoomerBrews]

Now that I think of it I had it in the wrong category. I meant to have flaked wheat and 2 row in fermentables not steeping. I apologize.

 

[Nosybear]

For an American Wheat, why are you steeping anything? Wheat Extract is about the right proportion of wheat to barley. There's no need for the two-row, it's in the extract so even if you mini-mash it, you're not adding anything. Same thing is true of flaked wheat, although it will contribute some body, it's not going to do much for you! You might use some carapils for steeping, or you could just add some maltodextrine, although when using extract, cutting body is more commonly needed than increasing it. I don't understand what you're trying to do with the various ingredients in your beer, I guess is what I'm saying. Use wheat extract, generally around 50% of both wheat and barley malt with some carapils thrown in, steep the flaked wheat and add your cranberry juice at high krauesen.

 

[BoomerBrews]

For an American Wheat, why are you steeping anything? Wheat Extract is about the right proportion of wheat to barley. There's no need for the two-row, it's in the extract so even if you mini-mash it, you're not adding anything. Same thing is true of flaked wheat, although it will contribute some body, it's not going to do much for you! You might use some carapils for steeping, or you could just add some maltodextrine, although when using extract, cutting body is more commonly needed than increasing it. I don't understand what you're trying to do with the various ingredients in your beer, I guess is what I'm saying. Use wheat extract, generally around 50% of both wheat and barley malt with some carapils thrown in, steep the flaked wheat and add your cranberry juice at high krauesen.

Honeslty I was mainly doing the 2 row and flaked to get some body and attempt a partial mash recipe. I get what you’re saying and the reason I posted a draft was to get an idea of brewing a solid wheat beer. I’m not a big wheat beer person myself and wanted to make something for Christmas time that my family would like. I’ll cut out the flaked and 2 row and just use the Pilsen and wheat extract. I’ll throw in a small amount of catapils as well. Why add juice at high krauesen vs adding it into the secondary?

 

[J A]

You'll get more body and flavor out of a partial mash but a basic wheat extract beer with some decent steeping grain will be pretty good for what you want. Since you're not going with a Hefe or Wit, you won't be missing the ferulic acid that wheat and those yeasts will provide for banana flavors. What you'll have is a pretty standard Blonde Ale with a little wheat character but it won't be hazy or estery.

 

[Nosybear]

And my bad, the ferulic acid rest is not for American wheat yeasts, which should finish neutral.

 

[BoomerBrews]

hmmmm, seems like I need to make a decision between exploring partial mash or just going all extract with some carapils. I’ll end up making that decision at the homebrew supply store I suppose. I appreciate all the advice and info.

 

[J A]

hmmmm, seems like I need to make a decision between exploring partial mash or just going all extract with some carapils.

Your equipment will make the decision for you. Either you have a vessel with the capacity to mash the desired amount of malt or you don't. If you do, then you have to figure out how you'll handle sparging. You can do something as simple as BIAB in a cooler and dunk sparge in your boil pot or mash in your boil pot BIAB and dunk sparge in a bucket. Either way, you have to figure out process and equipment. Definitely simpler to do partial or full boil extract with steeping grain but you'll make better beer with partial mash and eventually all-grain.

 

[Nosybear]

I'd add experience level. You might have mentioned it but if so, I didn't pick it up. If this is one of your early brews, go the extract route, fewer things to worry about and to go wrong. On the other hand, a mini-mash isn't that hard, as JA mentions. And by the way, I saw that you are still using wheat and barley extract. Just for your awareness, wheat extract is somewhere around 50% barley malt, the exact figure depending on the producer.... So by adding both wheat and light DME, you're cutting the amount of wheat in your brew.

 

[BoomerBrews]

Thanks for the help guys. I ended up doing extract. It’s going to be more of a blonde than a wheat I suppose. I got 3lbs of wheat dme and 3lbs of pilsen dme and 1lb of carapils but will only use .5lbs of the carapils. Doing a double brew day Sunday of this wheat beer and a mosaic SMaSH.

 

[J A]

Doing a double brew day Sunday of this wheat beer and a mosaic SMaSH.

I've had an example of an extract Mosaic SMASH that was pretty supurb. Don't use very much Mosaic at 60, keep the fermentation clean and you'll be rewarded with a wonderful brew.

 

[BoomerBrews]

I've had an example of an extract Mosaic SMASH that was pretty supurb. Don't use very much Mosaic at 60, keep the fermentation clean and you'll be rewarded with a wonderful brew.[/QUOTE
I plan on doing 1oz @ 60 1 oz @ 5 1 oz @ flameout. Recently had southern tier brewing 2xsmash which was a DIPA with mosaic and it was amazing.

 

[J A]

It's totally dependent on batch size in terms of amount but I wouldn't do any more than a 1/4 of total IBUs in the 60 minute addition. Mosaic can have a harsh bitterness that lingers and gets in the way of the flavorful finish. It may take more hops but keeping the 60 minute addition low and bringing some in at 20 or so gives a smoother bitterness and really punches up the flavor.
Hops like Mosaic really give the most in the whirlpool and you can get some of that benefit by leaving the flameout hops in through the cool down and even breaking up the chilling time and doing a hop stand at 180 for 20 minutes or so before continuing to drop temperature. That should work even if you're doing partial boil and adding water to chill.

 

[BoomerBrews]

It's totally dependent on batch size in terms of amount but I wouldn't do any more than a 1/4 of total IBUs in the 60 minute addition. Mosaic can have a harsh bitterness that lingers and gets in the way of the flavorful finish. It may take more hops but keeping the 60 minute addition low and bringing some in at 20 or so gives a smoother bitterness and really punches up the flavor.
Hops like Mosaic really give the most in the whirlpool and you can get some of that benefit by leaving the flameout hops in through the cool down and even breaking up the chilling time and doing a hop stand at 180 for 20 minutes or so before continuing to drop temperature. That should work even if you're doing partial boil and adding water to chill.

Boil size is 6 gallons. 5.5 gallons into fermenter.

 

[BoomerBrews]

Update. Did all extract. Steeping .5lbs of carapils. Used 1oz of williamette for boil and 1oz of cascade for aroma. OG was 1.051. I rehydrated safale us05 and pitched. I’ve never rehydrated before and I’m not sure I saw a difference in lag time. Ferm kicked off within 24 hours and this morning it was going really going. I have 2.5lbs of sweet frozen cherries. I’ve thawed and refrozen now two times and will do it one more time before pitching into the primary. I also picked up a bottle of tart cherry natural extract at the homebrew store to add if I don’t get as much flavor as I want from the frozen cherries. Should be a hit for Christmas time. Also looking to get into kegging and use the kegerator that’s been sitting collecting dust. I may end up getting a keg before this is done.

 

[jmcnamara]

I'm curious, why'd you freeze the cherries so many times. I know it's supposed to help burst the cell walls so it's easier to mix in, but does it make it even easier if you freeze a few times?