🍺 Top-down Brew: 01 American Wheat
Data Entry
Conversion to malt extract
- Delete the two-row and wheat malt lines.
- For liquid malt extract, add sugar: Wheat liquid malt extract, 100, 5, 76
- For dry malt extract, add sugar: Wheat dry malt extract, 100, 3.5, 96
Explore other malts, sugars, and hops
Results
Notes
2021 BJCP 01D. American Wheat characteristic ingredients: "Clean American ale or lager yeast. German Weissbier yeast is inappropriate. Wheat malt (often 30–50%, lower than is typical in Weissbier). American, German, or New World hops."
Vital Statistics: IBU 8 - 18, SRM 2 - 3.5, OG 1.040 - 1.050, FG 1.004 - 1.010, ABV 4.2% - 5.3%
Wheat malt should be 30% to 50% of the grain bill. The remaining malt is mostly standard American two-row or a combination of two-row and pilsner malt (up to 25%) or American pale ale malt (up to 20%). Other possibilities are small amounts of Munich, Vienna, Caravienne, or light crystal malts. Keep the specialty malts small or zero to keep the focus on the base grains plus wheat.
A variation on this style is to add malted rye. Zainasheff recommends replacing about half of the wheat malt with rye malt. This could range from 10 to 30% of the total grist. The rye proportion could go as high as 50% if prominent rye character is desired.
The recommended hops are standard American (examples: Cascade, Willamette, Mount Hood) or European (example: Hallertau) varieties. Citra, Centennial, and Amarillo have been increasingly popular. Avoid hops that are excessively pine, resin, or dank.
American ale yeasts are often used, like Fermentis US-05. Some American wheat yeasts are available in liquid form. Kolsch yeasts are okay. Do not use hefeweizen yeasts because these are phenolic.
Sources
Beer-analytics.com American Wheat
Strong, G. (2018, July-August). American wheat: A summertime classic that shines. BYO, p. 28-32.
Zainasheff, J. (2010, July-August). American wheat/rye: Refreshing and easy drinking. BYO, p. 19-22.