Operation Dunkelweizen: Recipe Phase

As I've posted about before, Leah and I are brewing a Dunkelweizen to hand out when our second child arrives on or around Feb. 14. Here were my concluding thoughts after tasting five different Dunkelweizens:

"Now that I've tried all five, I'm thinking my beer will actually be somewhere in the middle of all of these. I hate to say it because it sounds like a cop-out, but I would like the melanoidin sweetness of the Bonfire, a little of the toastiness of the Erdinger, the copper hue of the Ayinger, and the subtle caramel and cocoa notes of the Franziskaner."

So what did I come up with? This:

10.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 50.0 %
5.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 25.0 %
3.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 15.0 %
1.00 lb Cara Munich I Malt (34.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %
0.50 lb Cara Munich III Malt (66.0 SRM) Grain 2.5 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 2.5 %
1.80 oz Tradition [4.90%] (60 min) Hops 14.1 IBU

The two main things I wanted to avoid were too much roastiness and too dark of a color. By going mostly with Munich malt and just a touch of chocolate wheat malt for color, I figure I should get some nice sweet, chocolatey flavors without getting any roasty bitterness. And Beersmith estimates this will clock in at 15.6 SRM, which is about as light as you can get and still fit within the style guidelines. Overall, it's still a little higher than I would like on the crystal malts, but I'm going for broad appeal here as opposed to German authenticity, so I think it'll work.

I made a 1000 mL stater of WLP 300 Hefeweizen yeast (I actually prefer WLP 380 - Hefeweizen IV but my local homebrew store was out of it) on Tuesday and we should be ready to roll when I brew tomorrow. If only it were going to be a few degrees warmer--the forecasted high is 25°F--but such is the life of a Chicago brewer. Until tomorrow...