AG#5 Witbier

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stevela

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Brewday the second is hopefully scheduled for today, as the lady of the house discovered she quite enjoyed a Blue Moon whilst in the states recently I thought I'd make this one for her:

Recipe: AG#5 Wit
Style: Witbier
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 7.5 EBC
Estimated IBU: 15.5 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.60 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (5.5 EBC) Grain 1 50.0 %
2.10 kg Pale Wheat Malt (3.5 EBC) Grain 2 40.4 %
0.50 kg Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC) Grain 3 9.6 %
25.00 g Saaz [4.15 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 10.0 IBUs
25.00 g Saaz [4.15 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 7.7 IBUs
25.00 g Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 7 -
25.00 g Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 8 -
1.0 pkg Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944) [124 Yeast 9 -

I have trimmed and fitted the line around the false bottom now once i remembered I had a few hundred meters of CAT5 lying around the place so hopefully I won't have so much grain in this one (although clarity isn't going to be a worry for this beer):

wXjqdmu.jpg


I've also replaced the back nut on the element with a KM8 after foolishly taking the element out to clean after last weeks brew (won't be doing that again) and it not wanting to rethread:

uPnitNB.jpg


If anyone needs one I'll probably have a spare going in the middle of next week as I ordered one on ebay and then found a place in Leigh that did counter service.
 
those lock nuts do the job well, however they do suffer from a little surface rust after a few brews but nothing untowards.
 
I hope all goes well for you , my 2nd fav beer :thumb: a top tip , when you roll your seeds have a good smell and judge how fresh/strong they are . If week double up at around 50/60g if powerful smell then around 28g is about right . Coriander seeds vary on strength so you have to make guess really . Not enough is worse than too much imo .
If you like this brew then maybe try next time with pilsner malt and flaked wheat , saaz is also a nice hop . :cheers:
 
piddledribble said:
those lock nuts do the job well, however they do suffer from a little surface rust after a few brews but nothing untowards.

I did wonder about that, they had stainless steel ones but wanted £20 for them!

pittsy said:
I hope all goes well for you , my 2nd fav beer :thumb: a top tip , when you roll your seeds have a good smell and judge how fresh/strong they are . If week double up at around 50/60g if powerful smell then around 28g is about right . Coriander seeds vary on strength so you have to make guess really . Not enough is worse than too much imo .
If you like this brew then maybe try next time with pilsner malt and flaked wheat , saaz is also a nice hop . :cheers:

Thanks for the tip Pittsy! Would you recommend the Saaz over the Mittelfrueh for this as I have half a bag in the freezer that needs using up from a previous BIAB wheat beer.
 
stevela said:
piddledribble said:
those lock nuts do the job well, however they do suffer from a little surface rust after a few brews but nothing untowards.

I did wonder about that, they had stainless steel ones but wanted £20 for them!

pittsy said:
I hope all goes well for you , my 2nd fav beer :thumb: a top tip , when you roll your seeds have a good smell and judge how fresh/strong they are . If week double up at around 50/60g if powerful smell then around 28g is about right . Coriander seeds vary on strength so you have to make guess really . Not enough is worse than too much imo .
If you like this brew then maybe try next time with pilsner malt and flaked wheat , saaz is also a nice hop . :cheers:

Thanks for the tip Pittsy! Would you recommend the Saaz over the Mittelfrueh for this as I have half a bag in the freezer that needs using up from a previous BIAB wheat beer.
any of the german noble hops are good for this , i would use up what you use the least so keeping best for other brews
 
andyco said:
Wit is also one of my favs to brew :thumb:

I've read that a Blue moon uses US-05 yeast.
Have a read through this thread http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/blue-moon-clone-65328/, user Wayne1 I belive was brewmaster at the coors brewery where bluemoon was brewed.

Hope the brew day goes smooth :thumb:

If only I'd seen this earlier I could have used the standby US-05 in the fridge. Brew day wasn't a smooth as I'd have liked especially not when I discovered that my smacking of the pack didn't break the inner packet :doh: Might be the last time I use those things.

Still 23 litres at 1044 which looks and smells fantastic so can't be that bad a day just have to see if the yeast takes off. If not I'll drop in the US-05 :)

End of the boil:

zHht1jK.jpg


Nice and pale wort:

JXT4i5W.jpg
 
Well it looks like I was too pessimistic about the yeast it's taken off like a rocket and I've just had to change my first airlock ever during a brew!

tumblr_mmrss9VMVj1s6aepxo1_250.gif


Smells superb, looking forward to drinking this one.

Now this is fermenting I'm already feeling an urge to brew again and I've not even bottled the first, time to look into more fridges :grin:
 
One week in and it is down to 1.022, fermentation has slowed down but as this fermenter tends to allow escape from around the rim I'm not too worried yet about lack of airlock activity. If it doesn't move in the next few days I'll give it a stir to see if I can get it moving again.
 
when brewing with wlp400 yeast it's a slow ferment and every now and again you do need to stir the brew to awaken the yeast , it will be around 2 weeks with stirring or 3 weeks without if it's the same as wlp 400
 
pittsy said:
when brewing with wlp400 yeast it's a slow ferment and every now and again you do need to stir the brew to awaken the yeast , it will be around 2 weeks with stirring or 3 weeks without if it's the same as wlp 400

Thanks Pittsy, I need this to be in a somewhat drinkable state for the 17th so will go and give it a quick stir, do you normally disturb anything that has settled to the bottom or would you try to avoid that?
 
Bottled this tonight, just over 18 litres with 125g of sugar. I've hidden them in the cupboard in case of detonating bottles so I don't get shrapnel stuck in the cats!

Tastes fantastic the clove and the orange very noticeable, looking forward to drinking this in a few weeks.
 
Many many bottles of this were consumed at the weekend along with the previous pale ale for the girlfriends birthday along with a Raspberry TC and a Citra TC.

All went down a treat but this Wit took a hammering and I now have a nice empty stash of bottles to fill up again.

If I was going to do this again I'd probably increase the amount of coriander and orange as it had dulled a bit from the sample I took whilst bottling other than that a definite winner.
 
pittsy said:
I hope all goes well for you , my 2nd fav beer :thumb: a top tip , when you roll your seeds have a good smell and judge how fresh/strong they are . If week double up at around 50/60g if powerful smell then around 28g is about right . Coriander seeds vary on strength so you have to make guess really . Not enough is worse than too much imo .
If you like this brew then maybe try next time with pilsner malt and flaked wheat , saaz is also a nice hop . :cheers:

Pittsy, I'm looking at brewing this one again soon, when you recommend using pilsner and flaked wheat are you saying 50/50 split between those two and nothing else?
 
yes mate or you could do 25% pale wheat 25% flaked wheat and 50% pilsner .Remember to make sure the flaked wheat has been gelatinised and i would recommend a step mash , i do 51c for 20 mins , 63c for 30 mins then 68c for around 40 mins and mash out at 76c . I also use around 30g of orange peel and 30g of corri at 5 mins of boil.
 
pittsy said:
yes mate or you could do 25% pale wheat 25% flaked wheat and 50% pilsner .Remember to make sure the flaked wheat has been gelatinised and i would recommend a step mash , i do 51c for 20 mins , 63c for 30 mins then 68c for around 40 mins and mash out at 76c . I also use around 30g of orange peel and 30g of corri at 5 mins of boil.

Thanks for the response, I got my flaked wheat from the Malt Miller, do I need to do anything special with it?

Never tried a step mash before, should be interesting. I'll see what I can come up with in BeerSmith :)

Hopefully brew this tomorrow or Wednesday since I'm off work.
 
Well I've brewed this one again today, slightly modified recipe from last time and went with the Pilsner Malt and Flaked wheat as suggested by Pittsy. I only managed a two step mash as I couldn't get beersmith to play nicely when I tried to make a three step one (need to investigate that at some other point).

I also brewed slightly larger to make sure I got a full fermenter and to use up 3kg of ingredients rather than the 2.6kg my recipe called for.

Recipe: AG#5.2 Xmas Wit
Style: Witbier
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 32.05 l
Post Boil Volume: 30.16 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 27.00 l
Bottling Volume: 24.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 6.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 13.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 77.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
3.00 kg Pilsner (Weyermann) (3.3 EBC)
3.00 kg Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC)
40.00 g Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] - (Boil 60 mins)
1.00 Items Immersion Chiller (Boil 15.0 mins)
50.00 g Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins)
50.00 g Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 mins)
1.0 pkg Belgian Wit Ale (WYEAST #3944)


Mash Schedule: Double Infusion, Medium Body,Batch Sparge

Total Grain Weight: 6.00 kg
----------------------------

Protein Rest Add 13.27 l of water at 58.2 C 51.0 C 30 min
Saccharification Add 10.01 l of water at 92.1 C 66.7 C 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 16.78l) of 75.6 C water

Smooth brewday unfortunately I managed to mess up in the end and forgot to put the temperature probe back into the fridge after I moved it out of the way to put the fermenter in :doh:

Fortunately I've come downstairs a few hours later and it looks like it only managed to get the temp to around 27C so hopefully not too much damage done, dropped the temp back down by opening the door till it equalised with the room and it's now back at 19C.

I swear one day I'll brew something and not mess a step up!
 
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