American wheat ale?

[devinjames]

So I've made too much of a habit of only doing strong aggressive hoppy ales and was curious about doing a lighter easier to drink style. The idea I got was a wheat ale with hibiscus and honey but I don't really know where to start with creating a recipe. Ive found the american wheat ale to be (in my opinion) a very lackluster style, even my favorite breweries seem to make only plain boring wheat ales.

So basically I want to craft an American hefe that will make me, someone who likes big bitter beer, actually want to drink more than one of.

Please share your experiences with this style and how you make a killer American hefe.

[BenTheBrewer]

don't over think it. I subscribe to the keep it simple stupid theory.

5 lbs . American 2 row Pale
5 lbs. Wheat malt
2-3 hands full of rice hulls

1.25 - 1.5 oz hallertau hops at 60 mins

WLP320 American hefe yeast

add 2 lbs of heated honey to secondary
not sure about hibiscus...
If you like more hops add some at flame out. That's the best part of homebrewing. You don't NEED to stick to BJCP guidelines.

[pythoner]

I just use a simple recipe
4 lbs marris otter
1 lb marris otter home toast
6 lbs malted wheat
And a light hopping to 20-25 ibu

Also liberty hops make for a plesent aroma with the wheat

[dannypo]

Try adding 1 lb of munich to the grain bill. It increases the overall malt character without over doing it.I do this with a lot of small and simple beers to just up the complexity a bit.

[devinjames]

Cool, thanks for the advice. However I'm thinking I might just ditch the wheat ale and do a blonde instead.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

+1 to what everyone has said. I would add the hibiscus in the last minute of the boil, like chamomile in a wit.

[AdamWiz]

I currently have a Summer-type wheat beer fermenting. I tweaked a recipe that was supposedly a Bell's Oberon clone. Oberon is a little darker in color than most American Wheat beers ( a kind of golden orange ), and has more hop character and an almost citrusy quality from dry hopping with Cascade hops. Here's the Recipe:
- 3-1/4 lb. Briess Bavarian Wheat DME
- 2-1/2 lb. Briess Golden Light DME
- 10 oz. Munich malt
- 6 oz. Crystal 60L
- 3/4 oz. Hallertau for 60 min., 1 oz. Hallertau for 30 min.
- 1/2 oz. Saaz for 15 min., 1/2 oz. Saaz for 5 min.
- White Labs American Hefeweizen yeast
- Dry hop for 7 days in secondary with 1 oz. whole Cascade hops

it smells good coming from the airlock and the sample I pulled the other day tastes promising. Can't wait until it's finished.