I'm in the planning stages of an easy drinking summer wheat ale, OG: 1.050 and 25-30 IBU. Potential grain bill: 50% wheat malt, 40% pale malt, maybe some melanoiden and/or crystal. Leaning towards a Kolsch yeast. The thing I'm having trouble with is deciding on where to go with this flavor wise... Some of the options I'm considering: 1) A citrusy/American late hop addition, (maybe dry hop). Not too aggressive though, still want low enough IBUs for easy drinking. 2) Add some orange or grapefruit zest. 3) Honey wheat- hit it with some honey and/or honey malt. 4) A combination of any of the above (or all). Just wondering if anyone wants to share their experiences/ recipes for this style? Also, any other advice to brewing an American Wheat. Should be noted that this will not be entered in any competitions, so doesn't matter how close it matches BJCP guidelines. thnks
Options 1 and 3 don't have to be mutually exclusive. Honey flavor and citrusy hops play well together.
My buddy just opened a brewery in town and brewed something similar. His malt bill was a little more complex than yours, 30% Wheat split between White Wheat Malt and Torrified, I think some Munich, and then Pale. He used Citra and Amarillo for flavor, WP, and DH. Fermented with the Kolsch yeast (wouldn't drop clear for anything). It was fairly juicy, crushable, a light breadiness and wheat tang. Good beer.
I did an american wheat and it came out great. 1.052 (fermented with saf 05, mashed at 150, would mash higher next time, very dry) 60% pils 40% white wheat. Bittered with perle and put amarillo at flameout. It came out great. Very crushable.
I made this one last year and thought it turned out great. It's not too often that I would consider rebrewing a recipe without tweaking, but I can't think of anything I would change on a rebrew of this one. OG 1.049, FG 1.011, 5% ABV, 25 IBU's 5# white wheat 3.25# 2-row 1# munich 10L 0.5# carahell 0.2# acidulated (mash pH) Mash 75 min at 151, batch sparge. 0.5oz Perle at 60 min 1oz Mosaic at 5 min 1oz Mosaic at 1 min Wyeast 1007 German Ale
Big Fan of this recipe, brewed many times. http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/11/hoppy-wheat-with-march-pump-hoprocket.html
