First Partial Mash Brew (Magic Rock Clown Juice Clone)

[benkbenkbenk]

Merry Christmas!

I am about to attempt my first partial mash brew. I am aiming for something similar to Magic Rock Brewery's Clown Juice, for those not familiar with this delicious creation, it's what they call an India Wit Ale, basically an Belgian Wit, dry hopped IPA style. (http://www.magicrockbrewing.com/blog/clown-juice-india-wit-ale)

For my recipe I have taken a Wit Beer from this beginner partial mashing guide, http://www.homebrewing.org/Partial-Mash-Brewing_ep_43-1.html and converted roughly to metric, and changed the hops to Amarillo and Cascade.

Recipe:
2kg Torrified Wheat
0.25kg CaraPils
0.25kg Maris Otter
2kg Light DME

25g Cascade 60mins
25g Amarillo 30mins
15g Cascade 10mins
15g Amarillo 10mins
15g Corriander Seeds 5mins
35g Orange Peel 5mins

Dry Hops
35g Cascade
35g Amarillo

Boil Volume 14litre
Batch Volume 22.5litre

Estimated SG 1.055
Estimated FG 1.013
Estimated ABV 5.5%
Estimated IBU 30.4


I have a couple of questions, first off, does this recipe look OK?

Secondly, is the method described in the Partial Mashing guide what you call brew in a bag, (BIAB), and should I be getting around 65% efficiency from this method?

Thanks in advance, and happy new year.

 

[clibit]

Never brewed a Wit, I don't drink them either, but my main thought would be not to use torrified wheat, use wheat malt. TW is used more as an adjunct to aid head retention, at around 5% of the total fermentables.

BIAB and partial mashing are two different methods for making beer, strictly speaking, but partial mashers often use a bag to mash the grains. So it's a very similar process. I have achieved varying efficiencies, 65% up to 80%, when mashing grains in a pot with a bag. It varies with the type of grains you use, the crush, the temperature and the length of mash - and if/how you sparge the grains. I tend to use 70% as the basis for a recipe and sometimes adjust the volume in the FV according to the gravity reading, if it's high. If I was you I would simply follow that recipe as closely as possible, and the method described. You will learn from the experience, and find out the efficiency. Efficiencies may be different with wheat, somebody else will know, I only use small amounts of wheat at a time.

 

[benkbenkbenk]

As I understood it Wit recipes calls for unmalted wheat, and the enzymes in the marries otter help convert the starches to sugars.

I am intending to sparge, just by steeping the grain bag twice in different batch of hot water, the pouring hot water over the bag at the end to rinse.

Do I calculate my efficiency by measuring the gravity of the resulting liquid and comparing that to a max ppg?

 

[benkbenkbenk]

Well I bottled this last weekend and have had my first bottle tasting today, just a 250ml to see how it's going. It's truly delicious by far and away the best beer I have made. The beer has a head that stays around for more than a few seconds, not sure if this is due to the introduction of a partial mash into my brewing or maybe it's just because I used wheat, either way really pleased!

As for the taste, It's come out a good approximation of the Clown Juice, although intentionally not as strong. The aroma is just amazing, can small the orange and citrus and a slight biscuityness. It's still a little sweet as I don't think the priming sugar has been fully worked out yet, but personally I think it compliments it, so I might drink some more!

 

[clibit]

Nice one. There's no better feeling! :