Tiered of brewing "Betty Crocker Beer"

[kvcataldi]

greetings fellow beer enthusiast,

I have recently completed assimilation to the Borg, but I am not new to home brewing. I started about 5 years a go with Mr. Beer and the LBK and I now use Brewdemon. After 5 years of reconstituting HME's and UME's I'm ready to graduate to something a little more chalenging. While I don't have the space, time, and resources for all grain batches I would like to start moving in to steeping specialty grains and hopps into 2 gallon recipes. For the purpose of gaining experience I am going to attemp to brew a wheat beer using the following:

1.21 lbs BD Wheat UME ( 2 cans)
.5 lbs Crushed Carapils (Steeping)
1/2 a pk of Safbrew WB-06 wheat yeast
Maybe some lemon zest and coriander just to get a little crazy (LIVIN ON THE EDGE )
What I need advice on is what hopps to use, how much, when to add it to the wort, and the boil time.

Again this is going to be a 2 gallon batch so come to think of it, how much water do I use for the steeping and the wort boil?
If anyone could spare some wisdom I would be very grateful.

In addition to the ingredients listed above I also have 3lbs Light DME, 3lbs Amber DME, 3lbs Wheat DME, and a 1.21 lbs can of Amber LME.

[swenocha]

Welcome, kvcataldi. It looks like you are on a good path to start expanding your brewing horizons. What you have proposed is a great first step into trying some different brewing techniques, and I think you'll find great results with adding the steeped grains and hops. You can also advance to countertop mashes after this if you choose, or to countertop all-grain BIAB with not much additional equipment...

Here's what I would do based on the grain/UME you list, but of course, it is your beer and you should do what you think is correct. I'm quite fond of this combination in a wheat beer, but you should pick the additional ingredients that meet your taste...

Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hops (I normally do mine 0.33oz for 90 minutes, but I think a 15 min boil would work - just adjust to 17.5 IBU or so... that works out to about 0.7oz for the 15 min)...
0.50tsp of ground coriander added to the kettle 10 minutes before the end of boil.
0.15tsp of ground Valencia orange peel 5 minutes before the end of boil.

EDIT: As to your water question... I think I used to do 1 gal per pound or so, but it's not as crucial to hit specific volumes on a steep as opposed to a mash, IMHO. I used to steep the grain in the water between 160° and 175° F for 20 to 30 minutes, then start my hop boil after the grains are strained.
Let us know what you decide and how it works out...

[bpgreen]

You've got a lot of options and you can go in a lot of different directions. That's part of what makes this fun.

Swenocha gave you some good advice, and if you follow it, you'll have a good (or even a great) beer.

Welcome.

I'm not a big fan of wheat beers, so take some of my comments with a grain of salt. I'm making my comments more from a theoretical standpoint than a practical or experiential standpoint.

Welcome.

One question that Swenocha didn't address is the amount of water to use for the steep. I didn't see a lot of difference between steeping and mashing, so never did steeping grains without mashing grains, but the ratio I've seen most often for steeping grains is about 1 gallon of water for 1 lb of grain. So if you go with .5 lb of carapils, that would mean .5 gallon of water for the steep.

Personally, .5 lbs seems high for a MB/BD sized batch. I'd probably go with .25 lbs (which would mean a quart of water). But a half pound should be fine, as well.

Most recipes you'll find with hop boils will have a 60 minute boil, but if you're not mashing, you can get by with a shorter boil, as Swenocha pointed out. Do you have brewing software to help figure out the IBUs? If you're not planning on doing a full volume boil, QBrew will get the IBUs wrong, so aim low if you're using QBrew. BeerSmith does a much better job calculating IBUs when you're doing anything other than full volume boils.

If you're going to use a fresh orange or lemon, make sure to use just the zest, not the whole peel. I think the Valencia peel Swenocha mentioned is dried and already has the pith removed (the pith is the white part just inside the peel--you don't want this).

As for hops, I think hops are a really personal thing. It really depends on what you want from them. Since you're relatively new to doing hop boils, you probably don't know the answer to that. One thing with wheat beers is that they often don't get a lot from hops except for bittering. A noble hop (or a noble like hop) is a good choice. Hallertaur, Saaz, Spalt and Tetnang are the true noble hops (Swenocha picked from that list). There are hops that are sometimes used as substitutes (I've used Liberty in a pinch, for example). If you do a shorter boil, you'll get more flavor and aroma from the hop. If you want more citrus contributed by the hop, you could use something like Cascade or Centennial.

I would add a gallon of water and one of the cans of UME to the water from the steep to do the hop boil. I'd add the other can at flameout.

The wheat yeast will add different things depending on the temperature. For APAs and IPAs, it's generally a good idea to ferment near the low end of the yeast's range so the yeast doesn't contribute much and the flavor comes from the malt and hops used. With wheat beers, you usually want the yeast to contribute to the flavor profile. The flavors you want will determine the temperature you ferment (some temperatures may produce banana flavors, others may produce bubble gum, etc).

If you're partial to wheat beers, it might be a good idea to start with a basic recipe, then do variations on a theme, changing one thing at a time. If you change the hop used, the boil time, the fermentation temperature, you won't know which ones made the difference(s) you liked/hated.

There's a thread somewhere here where FedoraDave is doing something similar with all-grain, to find what characteristics he likes from different malts and hops.

[mashani]

So... I'll just add:

WB-06 is very mellow (not very strong banana or clove like) compared to liquid wheat beer yeasts. So it depends on what you are looking for.

IF you want to use that yeast and you actually want a real banana vibe like some types of German wheat beer you have to get your fermentation temps up to about 78 degrees.

You don't want a lot of bitterness in a wheat beer, so if you use a high AA hop you have to either use a small amount, or do a short duration boil if you want more hop presence (IE more American wheat vs. German wheat).

[kvcataldi]

Thanks to all of you for sharing your insight and expertise . Great information that I can't wait to try. I will be posting the results. Once again I can't thank you all enough.

[BlackDuck]

Since you've got great advice already, I'll just say....Welcome to the Borg!!

[Beer-lord]

Howdy and welcome!
We've got all the info you need here so always feel welcome to share your brewing adventures.