Wheat in an IPA

I've been seeing a few recipes involving wheat in an IPA-like hopping schedule.

My question is what exactly is the point? Won't the hops over power any wheat flavor induced by the grain?

I'm going to be brewing an IPA this weekend and I want to try something interesting.

Either BYO or Zymurgy (can't remember which) recently had an article on brewing a clone of A Little Sumpin Sumpin which is a wheat one that is delicious. A search should be able to find it.

I think it is more for mouth feel than flavor

I've been looking for a recipe for that beer for sometime now but couldn't find anything promising. I love that beer, and it defiantly doesn't have a lot of wheat-y flavor but the hops. AMAZING. Do they have either if these online from BYO the other.

If anyone could put together a clone for 80 acre from Boulevard that's a pretty good beer.

It's a wheat beer with IPA aroma. I think the label says something like "smells like an IPA, finishes like a wheat beer".

I haven't heard of anything else quite like it, but I do enjoy this beer, particularly during warmer weather.

deuce40 said:

I've been looking for a recipe for that beer for sometime now but couldn't find anything promising. I love that beer, and it defiantly doesn't have a lot of wheat-y flavor but the hops. AMAZING. Do they have either if these online from BYO the other.

Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-recipe-lagunitas-little-sumpin-sumpin-218399/

I was thinking of making a 100% wheat IPA. I know people have done it not in the IPA format. I imagine it would be devilishly crisp

There are wheat IPAs where you taste wheat (Lagunitas SS which is 50% wheat)... and then there are IPAs with 4-10% wheat in the grist. The latter example is not for flavor. It's more about head retention in place of using a dextrine malt such as carapils.

Sam Adams put out the Whitewater IPA. I got it in a mixed pack and was skeptical, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I, like you, wondered "what's the point?" However, I think their mix really highlights both the hops and the wheat. According to their website:

HOP VARIETIES
Topaz, Chinook, Cascade, Simcoe, and Citra

MALT VARIETIES
Samuel Adams two-row pale malt blend and white wheat

SPECIAL INGREDIENTS
Apricots, coriander, orange peel

Click to expand...

A large percentage of wheat definitely does give a different character than barley. North Peak's Vicious Wheat IPA is another example. Pretty good stuff. I had actually planned on trying one, maybe 40% wheat or so, sometime within the next couple of weeks. I have some NZ hops that I'm looking to experiment with, and this might be the perfect recipe for it.

I'll have to give it a shot then. Anywhere between 50 and 100% is on the table

BYO October 2012, cover story is IPA 2.0 is the cover story. The article describes and has recipes for: wheat IPA, black IPA, rye IPA and Belgian IPA. check it out, awesome!

Has anyone had experience with roasted wheat malts? Such as what percentages are typical in certain styles

If there are any styles that specifically call for roasted wheat, I don't know of them. I'd imagine most any style that calls for roasted grain could be made with roasted wheat of a similar type (in a 1:1 replacement), though you'd get less bitterness from the wheat due to its lack of a hull. Certainly anything that uses a Carafa style grain (think, IBA, Schwartbier, alt, etc.) would do just fine.

As an example, you could probably do a very smooth porter with a good percentage of wheat as a base grain and enough chocolate or midnight wheat to get the color you want. Sounds pretty good, actually.

So the low efficiency of wheat has scared me off from doing a 100%. I'm thinking

9 lbs MO
5 lbs wheat
0.75 120 crystal

Probably going to add more than 4 oz of hops at flameout for a nice long steep. Thoughts?

If you're worried about efficiency either double crush the wheat or mill it with a tighter gap. I would not use crystal 120 in an IPA, especially if you are going for a lighter, crisper IPA with the wheat. In the BYO article they talk about leaving the crystal out completely and going with Vienna, Munich or Victory (or you could do a little of the home toasted wheat that you mentioned).

Thanks for the tips. I made a zombie dust clone using .5 lbs of 120 and it came out great

I'll take that advise though and stick with wheat roasts. I guess if I make a decent bed of rice hulls, I won't have a problem. I'll also probably go with a very thin mash.

I'm thinking about steeping 2 oz Citra, 2 oz Nelson and .5 oz of Apollo (for some dankness) after flameout. I'm going to be tasting my smashes today, so I'll know whether or not that Apollo is a good idea.

I'd be interested to hear how that Apollo smash turned out. Are those IPA's?

Yea they are. I'll be sure to let you know in this thread or another

The Apollo smash is pretty good. The flavor is earthy, pungent and dank. The bitterness is a tingling spiciness that isn't cloying. There are no unpleasant tastes. Sometimes hops taste onion like to me, but this was free of that. I hopped it the equivalent of 2 ounces every ten minutes for an hour of boil and then 2 ounces for 60 minutes of hop stand at 180 and 160 (30 minutes each)

I added 0.5 of Apollo for bittering, 0.5 each of citra and nelson in the last 20 minutes and 1.5 each of citra and nelson for an hour long steep. 0.5 ounces of Apollo is more than enough for bittering and I would never suggest more. It's like a pungent spice, such as ginger, cinnamon, or black pepper. Sparingly in long boils is fine, but it comes close to being too much in this IPA.

I'm familiar with steeping citra and nelson at this point and the results are exactly what I expected. My current favorite combo of hops at the moment. The 100% wheat thing, eh. It's one heck of a cloudy beer. I like the fact that there's almost zero maltiness. Bitter, light, lemony hop nectar. It's worth it for the experience.