After a fun morning of yard work (who ever heard of mowing the yard before April?), a dog meet up in the circle, and racking the peach wine we endeavored to brew up a yet to be branded Belgian Wit. Judging by the smell test administered via the airlock this morning, it promises to be yum-o!
It’s a modified Blue Moon clone recipe I found on HBT in the recipe database. We did the all-grain, BIAB version as follows:
- 5 lbs Maris Otter Crisp
- 4 lbs Torrified Wheat
- 1 lbs Flaked Wheat
- 1 lbs Flaked Oats
- .75 oz UK Golding
- 1 oz Crushed Coriander
- 1.4 oz Fresh Orange Zest (zest from two average sized navel oranges)
- 3 cups Wyeast 3944 yeast slurry from starter made on Thursday
Into the pot went 8.5 gallons of water and on went the flame. We heated to 132˚F for a strike temp shooting for a 30 minute protein rest at 126˚F. Unfortunately we missed a bit and the protein rest happened at 132˚F although it drifted down to 126˚F by the 30 minute rest.
On went the flame again and we heated to 154˚F for the starch conversion. After 20 minutes the temps had drifted down to 148˚F so we heated and stirred for a bit to get back to 154˚F. Another 22 minutes and we had our 45 minute conversion with the temp drifting down to 150˚F by the end. Really should work on an insulation strategy if I’m going to keep using BIAB instead of using an MLT.
On went the heat again and we brought the temp up to 170˚F for a final 10 minute rest. At the end we drained the grain bag and then tried a few attempts at squeezing all of the possible wort from it using various methods. It has been demonstrated that we lack a colander or grate of sufficient diameter to rest securely on the lip of the fryer pot or a bucket. So we lost a little efficiency. That’s the bad news. The good news is we hit a pre-boil OG of 1.050. This was .008 higher than the target 1.042. Looks like I can bump my BIAB efficiency to 80% based on the last two attempts. Well, given there have been exactly two attempts, last might be a bit misleading.
Brought the wort to boil and let it roll for 30 minutes. In went the hops and we let it run for another 50. At 15 minutes to flame out we added the chiller and with five minutes on the clock we added the zest and coriander.
Damn it smelled nice!
Forgot to time the chiller (again) but we went from rolling boil to 70˚F inside of 15 minutes. Dumped the wort into a sanitized bucket via a paint straining bag. This kept out the zest and coriander (boo) but also left out a softball sized lump of trub and break material (yay). Post boil OG was a whomping 1.061. If this thing ferments down to the target FG we’re looking at a 6.4% ABV. Kind of a cross between a wit and a dubbel…Double wit? Do we have a brand name for this one now?
Down to the dungeon where we dumped in the yeast slurry, capped the bucket and sent off to the fermentation room. Within three hours the airlock was burbling away pleasantly. Checked on it again this morning and no blowout yet even though the airlock is going crazy. You can really smell the orange being carried along with the CO2 exhaust. I hope some of that odor/flavor stays behind!
Fermentation room is hovering in the middle 60s which is on the cool side for the 3944 so we won’t pick up the esters as much as one might like, but the orange and coriander should still spice it up nicely.
So the remaining tasks are to wrap up the post-brew cleaning (everyone is a-soakin’ today) and come up with a clever name for the Belgian Wit sitting in the cellar.
That and to thank the staff for their yeoman’s work yesterday. Butter was awesome on fire duty–not a single missed regulator reset! He’s also stepping into some management roles nicely even if he forgot to clock out for his lunch break. Doug was great with all facets of water management. If I weren’t so worried about him opening a competing bar next door he’d be pegged for management. Gavin makes a pretty good hop guy and since it’s not technically beer until we add the yeast, I don’t think his age presents a problem.
On the flip side, management has heard rumors of a coup. This must be quashed with extreme prejudice!
