Dark Wheat Beer

ian_m

Hi

Just wondering if anybody here has tried to make a dark wheat beer using a kit? Something along the lines of Unertl or Schneider?

I was thinking of using a Coopers wheat kit and adding dark malt extract instead of the wheat malt extract.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this? Please bear in mind that this is just my third attempt at home brewing and I am just looking to try something different. Preferably just from a can.

cheers

BeerNut

Never done it, but I'd say just putting 100g or so of dark crystal malt in a muslin bag, steeping it in a couple of litres of water for 20 mins at 60C, giving the liquid a quick boil to sanitise and then adding it to the kit made normally would give you the result you want. Sounds less risky than changing the fermentables wholesale.

oblivious

Avoid those dark malt extract, best added the colour your self as the eBernut suggested

with the addition of 150g or so of carafa dehusked malt, it wont really provide a roast flavor like chocolate/black malt or roasted barley.

erdinger dunkel is probably a good example of carafa, it has slight flavor its self but with out ending up tasting like a stout

if you want very little flavor to none from the caraf, you could cold steep it for a few minutes ant it will give color with little to none flavor

BeerNut wrote: »

Never done it, but I'd say just putting 100g or so of dark crystal malt in a muslin bag, steeping it in a couple of litres of water for 20 mins at 60C, giving the liquid a quick boil to sanitise and then adding it to the kit made normally would give you the result you want. Sounds less risky than changing the fermentables wholesale.

ian_m

BeerNut wrote: »

Never done it, but I'd say just putting 100g or so of dark crystal malt in a muslin bag, steeping it in a couple of litres of water for 20 mins at 60C, giving the liquid a quick boil to sanitise and then adding it to the kit made normally would give you the result you want.

In addition to the dark malt extract? Is crystal malt like sugar crystals or grains? Is it available from the Irish suppliers?

I've never done anything like that before.

BeerNut

ian_m wrote: »

In addition to the dark malt extract?

No, in addition to wheat DME. Basically: make the kit per instructions, but add some dark malt to stain it. Chocolate malt would work too, for an even darker effect.

ian_m wrote: »

Is crystal malt like sugar crystals or grains?

It's a grain.

ian_m wrote: »

Is it available from the Irish suppliers?

Yes. I see HBC have Extra-Dark Crystal now.