Wheat Beer, advice needed!

[RobWalker]

So here's my last beer;

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=39671

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 85.7 %
0.50 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 14.3 %
40.00 gm Williamette [5.50%] (60 min) (First Wort Hops 28.3 IBU
40.00 gm Williamette [5.50%] (10 min) Hops 9.3 IBU

To cut a long story short, I forgot the Irish Moss and because of the 15% wheat, this ended up cloudy with s-04 yeast. After a little advice we decided to just call it a wheat beer, and it's very enjoyable! The hops taste lovely, it's really refreshing, and as my LHBS have just got a wheat beer yeast in for £2, I'd like to have a go at making this a semi-proper wheat beer next time.

It's lovely, although I don't believe I hit 37 IBUs at all! What would be a good level of bitterness for an easy drinking but somewhat hoppy wheat? The willamette lend themselves to this beer really well, I'm happy with the flavour.

The recipe is pretty close, but I don't want to overdo the wheat, would 50/50 wheat and maris otter be okay?

How can I reduce the intense flavours in a wheat beer? I think a high ferment temp is needed, I'd prefer the banana flavours over clove flavours, other than this I'll be serving it cool (4c)

Any other tips? I'd rather keep it simple, no coriander etc, the simple beers are the best ones :

cheers! :

 

[pittsy]

you can drop the wheat to 40% and it still easily is a wheat beer , ferment at 22c , i would keep the hops low but it's not my beer , maybe try styrian goldings if you want it more hoppy , poss around 35 ibu .
My advice to you Rob is get some American wheat yeast wlp 320 (i think) it has none of the banana and little clove or none if fermented at 22c . It will give you a very pleasant wheat type beer without any of the strong flavours (it's just an ale yeast but goes well with wheat) , enjoy :thumb:

 

[Jimmy321]

As mentioned above keep the IBU low personally I would aim for under 20 IBU's.

22° is a good call on the fermentation temp, clove flavors are usually made more prominent at 17-18° and full on banana at 23-24° but it depends on the yeast.

 

[JKaranka]

One of my best brews this far was an American style APA with 20% wheat malt. It gave it a bit of dryness, and fermented very low. It was around 4.8% abv and 45 IBU of Amarillo, Galaxy and Cascade, and dry hopped in primary for a week with Amarillo, Galaxy and Cascade, and again dry-hopped in cask for a week with Galaxy. I used US-05 and it was very clear after conditioning, with a very very slight haze (you couldn't notice it in a half pint glass but you just could in a pint glass). I can dig out the recipe if you're interested but if you just stick to 80% pale, 20% wheat, aim at under 5% abv, and all 80% of your IBUs in the 15, 10 and 5 minute additions you won't miss.