Feel like I've got my process pretty much sorted now after this brew (famous last words!). I've a good feel now how much liquid I'll lose in the grain and how much will boil off.
This is the first be I've tried from Hughes, is pretty much the standard Belgian Wit recipe from his book except I cut it in half to fit my normal 12L brew size:
-1150g Wheat malt
-950g Maris Otter
-200g Flaked barley (a small change I made)
-20g Saaz hops @ 3.0% AAU
-13g each of coriander seeds and bitter orange peel
-Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit (used my large FV as I gather this yeast goes a bit crazy!)
Having punched my numbers into Brewers Friend I think I'm pretty much bang on with recipe - also very useful to calculate the amount of hops needed to get the right number of IBUs.
For this brew I stuck with the recommended 60 mins mash at 65degC - might have a play in the future with stepped or decoction mashing. I'd also like to play with other flavour additions but for now I'll keep it stock.
Wort chillers are awesome! Took only 5 mins to get down to 20degC (typically takes about 10 mins but I think the tap water was particularly cold today)
Only thing that's not clear to me, and it's not urgent yet, is how many volumes of CO2 are recommended for this type of beer - any suggestions appreciated! aunsure....
All being well, in a few weeks I would have a load of wit ready to go at around 4.5%
Cheers,
Matt
This is the first be I've tried from Hughes, is pretty much the standard Belgian Wit recipe from his book except I cut it in half to fit my normal 12L brew size:
-1150g Wheat malt
-950g Maris Otter
-200g Flaked barley (a small change I made)
-20g Saaz hops @ 3.0% AAU
-13g each of coriander seeds and bitter orange peel
-Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit (used my large FV as I gather this yeast goes a bit crazy!)
Having punched my numbers into Brewers Friend I think I'm pretty much bang on with recipe - also very useful to calculate the amount of hops needed to get the right number of IBUs.
For this brew I stuck with the recommended 60 mins mash at 65degC - might have a play in the future with stepped or decoction mashing. I'd also like to play with other flavour additions but for now I'll keep it stock.
Wort chillers are awesome! Took only 5 mins to get down to 20degC (typically takes about 10 mins but I think the tap water was particularly cold today)
Only thing that's not clear to me, and it's not urgent yet, is how many volumes of CO2 are recommended for this type of beer - any suggestions appreciated! aunsure....
All being well, in a few weeks I would have a load of wit ready to go at around 4.5%
Cheers,
Matt