Converting from Ratios/OG to an Actual Recipe

[nestler]

I have a beer recipe for a Wit that only lists an OG and percentages of each grain. How do I convert this into actual weights of each grain instead of just percentages? Also, how do I convert that all-grain recipe into a mini-mash recipe? Also my LHBS sells Red Wheat, Torrified Wheat Malt, and White Wheat Malt. Which ones of these matches "Pale Wheat" as called for in this Wit recipe?

The vague Wit recipe:

OG: 1.050
AE: 1.010

Grist:
Pale 2-Row – 50%
Pale Wheat – 50%

Hops:
60 min – Bravo (15.6% AA) – 0.4oz
30 min – Bravo (15.6% AA) – 0.07oz
0 min – Sterling (6.8% AA) – 0.27oz and Hersbrucker (T90) (4.5% AA) – 0.18oz

Spices (added at end of boil):
Coriander – 0.31 oz
Bitter Orange Peel – 0.06oz
Sweet Orange Peel – 0.25 oz

Yeast – Hoegardden
Ferm Temp – 66F for 75% of fermentation then let it climb as high as possible

 

[jdauria]

Assuming you don't use brewing software like BeerSmith? You can go on Brewers Friend website and create a recipe and just enter a starting point for grain, say 5 lbs of each since it's an easy 50/50 split and then move up and down accordingly until you get 1.050 og.

FYI, at 70% efficiency using my software, 4.72 lbs of each will get you 1.050.

I would say white wheat malt would be "pale malt".

 

[chickypad]

The easiest way for me to do it by hand without software is figure out the total gravity pts you need, then figure out the total grain you need for the efficiency on your system. I use an average of 36 ppg for grain, that will get you close enough. So if you're making 5 gal and you get 75% efficiency:

for 1.050 beer that's 50 x 5 = 250 total pts
250 ÷ 36 ÷ .75 = 9.25 lbs grain

So the all grain recipe would be
4lb 10 oz pale malt
4lb 10 oz wheat

For a witbier you would usually want unmalted wheat like flaked wheat. With your choices I think torrified would be more appropriate.

Converting to partial mash should be easy with this recipe, most wheat extract is a combo of pale and wheat in a ratio of about 60/40 or 50/50. You can just figure out how big a mash you want to do and replace the rest of the grain with extract. For 75% efficiency it would be 0.6 lb DME for each lb of grain you are replacing. So say you can do 4 lb in your mash, that would be:

2 lb pale
2 lb wheat
3.15 lb wheat DME

 

[nestler]

It looks like I should probably get BeerSmith running again (I had it on a previous computer but don't currently have access to it). Thanks for the tip about white wheat malt (that is what I bought).

 

[nestler]

Thanks for the demonstration of how to calculate this without using brewing software. That is exactly what I was looking for. For this particular recipe I ended up using a mixture of wheat DME, white wheat malt, and two row. It is not exactly traditional for a witbier (due to the lack of unmalted wheat) but I am trying to keep this similar to an existing AG recipe (for Avery White Rascal).

 

[jdauria]

Just an FYI if you don't have software and don't like doing the math, Brewers Friend website has a lot of calculators that will do the math for you.