Ok so I'm looking at this spiced pumpkin ale recipe that calls for "0.5 pound wheat malt (HMD Belgian)". What does HMD Belgian stand for? I assumed it was the malt brand but I did a google search and nothing really comes up. I have a leftover bag of Weyermann pale wheat malt, could I use that instead?
No idea about HDM. Can you infer what role wheat would be playing in the recipe? If the recipe gives you SRM, you ought to be able to infer something about the Lovibond of this malt. If it is higher than you calculate with beer software, it could be a chocolate wheat. Is it a pumpkin porter? It's also possible it could be a cara-wheat type product. If the beer has no other crystal malt, that could be appropriate, if the recipe looks like it desires a little sweetness. I could imagine sweetness would go well with a pumpkin spiced beer. It could be a more darkly kilned wheat, such as Weyermann dark wheat, or it could be standard wheat malt. My guess is that it would be difficult for most people to detect the difference between the last two when you are only talking about a half pound addition (sort of like when people add a half a pound of munich to a recipe; a debate sometimes ensues regarding whether it adds anything noticeable). Sometimes recipes call for small amounts of wheat to help create some body, and this is generally a white wheat malt, but others debate the impact and need, so you probably could get away with replacing with 2-row. My guess, w/o seeing a recipe is you will be fine with the pale wheat that you have.
