I bought a "Brewer's Best" Kit over break from my local homebrew store, a "full-bodied weizenbier", and I was considering improving on it a bit. The recipe calls for
6.6lbs of a wheat extract
1 oz Hallertau hops (bittering)
0.5oz Hallertau hops (finish)
Nottingham dry yeast

I was thinking foremost that I might switch to a liquid yeast, perhaps one we have banked.

If I go through with this recipe, this will be the first beer I've made without any addition of specialty grains. So I'm considering getting a few ounces of some grain or another, but I'm not sure what to go with. Would adding just an ounce or so of a smoked malt be too much of a constrast with a weizenbier? I was also considering some honey malt, perhaps with a shot of straight honey (which would be added just after the boil).

Finally, the kit comes with corn sugar for priming. At the last meeting someone was telling me that beer carbonated with corn sugar will lose its carbonation over time, and I should use DME instead. I don't think I'll have this beer for a very long stretch of time, so should I just use what I've got?

Thanks for any advice!

_________________
"Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into."
-Don Marquis

"A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her."
-W.C. Fields

There are a variety of weizen yeasts available in liquid form from:


http://www.whitelabs.com/
http://www.wyeastlab.com/

I do not think that we have a weizen yeast in the bank but I will be adding before the end of the month. PM me if you want to get a slurry from my primary. I can't remember the variety of weizen yeast that I have.

I think I might take you up on that slurry offer, if it's still open.

And if I get everything I want together, here's the plan:
Five gallons, five jugs:
1) +1oz. smoked malt "tea"
2) +some arbitrary amount of honey
3) dry yeast
4) wheat beer yeast (via slurry)
5) some non-wheat yeast (perhaps even bread yeast)

I might try six jugs, just to avoid overflow...probably give two of them the good yeast with no additives. If I stick with five I just won't add the full amount of water until after primary fermentation is done.

Thoughts?

_________________
"Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into."
-Don Marquis

"A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her."
-W.C. Fields