Belgian Wit Take 1

I have a project this summer...I need to make a beer good enough to serve at my friend's wedding. Pablo (his real name is Kevin, but I call him Pablo) asked me to brew one beer, and he would brew another to be served at the reception. We haven't discussed it in too much detail, but since it will be a summer wedding, his first thoughts were an IPA and a Belgian Wit. Since my first attempt at a belgian wit was not very good (no one even pretended to like it) I figure I should get some practice with the style. I decided to start easy, order a kit from Northern Brewer, and just swap out the bitter orange peel that it comes with (that stuff just looks like wood chunks) for fresh orange zest.

The plan was to do this in a scientific manner...I bought a notebook, I was only going to change one thing at a time, write down everything I did...but while setting up for brewday, I broke my hydrometer...aaaahhhh! Now I have to do this "science" project with only half of my "science-y" tools (the other being my thermometer). Oh well, even if I did take great notes and great measurements, the chances of me being able to repeat it is slim.

At any rate, this was my first all grain batch so maybe not knowing that I missed my gravity, or my efficiency is only 12% is a good thing. Here is the recipe (adapted from the directions that came with the Northern Brewer Belgian Wit kit)

3.5 lb Weyermann Pale Wheat

3.5 lb Belgian Pilsner

1 lb Flaked oats

Mash Schedule

Added 3 gallons of 163 degree water to bring to 152 degrees F (ok actually, the water was hotter, so I had to add ice cubes to bring it down to 152, but it went to 151, then dropped to 149 while it mashed for the hour)

Added 1 gallon of boiling water, to bring it to 156 F and started to drain to the brewpot.

Batch Sparged with 1.75 gallons at 172 degrees, plus some hot tap water (.25 gallons)

At this point I am not sure if I am even doing anything right, but I eventually got a pot full of wort, and put in on to boil.

Hops

60 minutes - 2 oz Strisselpalt

10 minutes - 1 oz coriander (whole)

10 minutes - Orange zest from 5 navel oranges

I pitched wyeast Belgian Witbeir yeast (I made a starter the night before, split between 2 growlers) and it is currently sitting in Dr. Tom's basement...we will see

Russian Imperial Honey Stout

Saturday was a very exciting brew day with the debut of my first mash tun!

This 5 gallon beverage cooler is the beginning of moving away from extract syrup and towards all grain brewing.

I’ll keep using the syrup for the bulk of my fermentable sugars since I only got about 50% efficiency on this first mash. But that’s ok because we added a pound and a half of honey to make up for it. I doubt the honey flavor will come through the dark malts and all the hops in this recipe, but it will up the alcohol a bit. This is my biggest beer yet, so I have no idea how long it will take before its drinkable (hopefully it takes less than 6 months to condition).

Mash:

5 lb British mild ale/stout malt (2.5^o L)

1 lb Crystal (90^o L)

0.5 lb Vienna malt

1 lb Chocolate malt (British)

1 lb oat flakes

0.5 roasted barley

I added in 4 gallons (half bottled water, half tap water) of water (165^o F?) and the mixture stabilized at 151^o F. After an hour, I added a half gallon of boiling water to thin out the mash and up the temperature a bit, and then started draining into the brew pot. I did a batch sparge with 165^o F water (forgot to write down the volume, 2 gallons?) to make sure I got as much sugar out as possible. The gravity of this was around 1.026.

Boil Schedule:

Bittering hops (60 minutes): 1 oz Chinook plugs @14% alpha acid

Flavoring hops (30 minutes): 2 oz Northern Brewer pellets @ 6% alpha acid

For the last 15 minutes of the boil, I added 4 lbs Alexanders Pale Extract (liquid), 1.5 lbs of Greg’s honey (Doylestown wild flower?) and about 2 tsp of yeast nutrients.

Aroma hops (10 minutes): 1 oz Cascade plugs @ 8.7% alpha acid

O.G. 1.075

The boil may have lasted longer than 60 minutes, so this may be a pretty bitter brew. We're at the upper end of the bitter scale with about 100 IBUs and at the low end of the gravity scale. Should be an interesting beer.

New Brewery Location

I found a place to brew in State College. My apartment is not really conducive to brewing, so I head over to my friend Greg's place. He has a keggerator and a nice flat concrete area outside for the turkey fryer. We have brewed two beers there: the first was a clone beer from a kit bought by another guy, Nick, and the second was a new take on my Mac's Irish Red recipe. The clone beer turned out well, even though Greg's house was ridiculously hot and the fermenter went a little crazy. The new irish red (which may turn out to be an amber) is fermenting now. The wort tasted great so I am pretty excited.

Nick, Greg and I funneling the beer into the carboy. Nick seems to approve.

Amber Ale/Irish Red mystery beer:
Grains Steeped @ ~165 F for about 30 minutes

• 1 lb Caramel Malt
• 1 lb US Breiss Aromatic 21 L mildly kilned (strong malt aroma +deep color)
• 1/4 lb chocolate malt
• 1/4 lb vienna malt

Malt Extract:

• 5.4 lb (a 4lb can and a 1.4 lb pound can) of Alexanders Pale Extract
• The lid from the small can (Greg was hung over and dropped it in...oops)

I also tried cold steeping about 1/4 lb of the chocolate malt in a gallon of water because someone told me it would give a nice red color. It didn't turn red, but I added this water anyway.

Hops:

• Bittering (60 minutes): 1 oz Perle (Gr) 8.3% alpha acid
• 30 minutes: 1 oz Santium (US) 6.1% alpha acid
• Aromatic (5 minutes): 1 oz Tettnang (Gr) 5.1% alpha acid

Yeast: Safale S-04 dry ale yeast (it was in a blue packet)
O.G. 1.048

I didn't add any irish moss or other fining agent, this will be a murky beer.