I have chosen to brew up a beer based on an article on allaboutbeer.com. This recipe calls for a grainbill of roughly half pilsner malt and half unmalted wheat which is traditional for the style (with 0.5 lb of oats thrown in for good measure as they are also traditional). The unmalted wheat requires a cereal mash to allow for good conversion. I have been doing what I have been calling a cereal mash with some of my sour beers with the goal of extracting starches without getting any conversion. The cereal mash used for this beer is the real deal in that I need good conversion from these grains. This will include an initial protein rest at 122 F for 15 min, 15 more min at 150 F to start some conversion, and then a 15 min boil to get the starches into solution. The main mash will run in parallel with this activity at it's own 122 F protein rest. The addition of the cereal mash will then raise the temperature of the main mash up to the low 150s for 60 more minutes of mashing.
The beer will be hopped at 60 min and then at 10 min with some low AA% Saaz hops. Per style, this hopping should provide some hop character, but not so much that it overwhelms any of the other flavorings, and low to moderate bittering.
I will be using 0.75 oz of Coriander (purchased from a local Indian supermarket) that I will crush (as I don't have a spice grinder). It has a nice spicy citrus aroma (rather than a celery or hotdog smell which I have read is possible). I will also be using the zest from two navel oranges in the beer. An alternate is bitter orange peel which was a bit more expensive and maybe (per opinions on the internet) not as good. These spices will be added with 5 min left in the boil.
Finally, I will be using Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier at 70 to 72 F to ferment this out. I am hoping to get a good level of esters out of the yeast at this temp range but not so much that they overwhelm the spices. I have heard that this yeast may be a bit of a slow worker so if it's now down in the low teens as expected after my normal 4 weeks of fermentation I may decide to give it some more time.
This looks like a really well thought out recipe. I am confident that the beer will turn out well if I am able to get the complicated brewday reasonably smoothly.
Recipe Details:
- Grain:
- Main Mash:
- 5 lb Pilsner
- 8 oz Flaked Oats
- 3 oz Acid Malt
- Cereal Mash:
- 4 lb Unmalted Wheat
- 1 lb Pilsner Malt
- Hops:
- 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.6% AA) at 60 min
- 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.6% AA) at 10 min
- Yeast:
- Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier
- Water:
- 10 gal spring water
- 5 gal tap water
- 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
- 1 tsp Gypsum
- Extras:
- 1.5 oz Orange Zest from 2 Navel Oranges at 5 min
- 0.75 oz Crushed Coriander Seed at 5 min
- 1 lb of rice hulls in mash
Process Details:
- Batch Size:
- 5.75 gal (Target 6 gal)
- Mash:
- Main Mash:
- Step 1: 130 F for 45 min(Target 122 F for 60 min)
- Step 2: 153 F for 60 min (Target 153 F for 60 min)
- Cereal Mash:
- Step 1: 122 F for 15 min (Target 122 F for 15 min)
- Step 2: 150 F for 20 min (Target 150 F for 15 min)
- Step 3: Boil for 15 min (Target Boil for 15 min)
- Boil:
- 60 min (Target 60 min)
- Fermentation Temp:
- 70 to 72 F
- Primary Duration:
- 4 weeks
- Secondary Duration:
- NA
Results:
- OG:
- 1.046 (Target 1.048)
- Efficiency:
- 69% (Target 75%)
- FG:
- 1.010 (Target 1.010)
- Apparent Attenuation:
- 78% (Target 79%)
- ABV:
- 4.73% (Target 4.99%)
Brewing Notes:
- 2/5/16 - Made a DME based starter using 8 oz of extract and 1.5 L of tap water. Added 1/8th tsp of yeast nutrient. Boiled in a flask. Chilled to 60s and added an expired package of yeast. Set up on a stir plate.
- 2/6/16 - had reached high krausen by this afternoon
- 2/7/16 - Brewday - 9:30 AM to 2:50 PM - including setup and cleanup
- Heated 10 gal of spring water to 125 F
- Had to double mill my raw wheat to get a good crush
- Transferred 10 qt of water to a separate pot for the cereal mash
- Added the grain and stirred in. The mash settled down to 119 F so I heated a bit more to get to the target of 122 F. Let sit for 15 min at this temp.
- Continued to heat the kettle through all this. Was up to 145 F by the time I started transferring to the mash tun
- Ended up with 2 gal of water above the false bottom
- Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
- Added the rice hulls
- Added the grain and stirred in. This only brought the mash temp down to about 130 F which was a bit high. I let it go without taking action. Let sit at this temp while the cereal mash progressed.
- Heated the cereal mash up to 150 F stirring frequently to avoid scorching. Let it sit at this temp for another 15 min
- Brought the cereal mash to a boil for 15 min. Stirred most of the time. The cereal mash wasn't sticky like the corn based ones I've been doing for the Flanders Reds. The 15 min rest at 150 F must be responsible for this. I am going to try this technique for cereal mashing next time.
- Added the cereal mash to the main mash. Added slowly and stirred in as I went to avoid overheating. Ended up raising the mash to the high 140s and low 150s.
- Setup the RIMS to cycle at ~2 qt per min with the heat set to 155 F
- Mashed for 60 min
- Heated 7 gal of sparge water to 190 F
- At the end of the mash I transferred all the wort from the grant back to the mash tun and then added a couple more inches of sparge water on top of the grain bed
- Sparged slowly (~1 gal every 5 min)
- Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal. It was at a boil after collecting about 7 gal
- Gravity at the grant after collecting 3 gal was 9.6 brix (1.038)
- Collected 8 gal total - gravity at the grant was 2.5 brix (1.010) at the end of the mash
- Added the 60 min hops after the hot break cleared
- Crushed the Coriander seed with a beer bottle used like a rolling pin.
- Zested the two oranges and got quite a bit of orange zest (1.5 oz) decided to just use all of it
- With about 10 min left I added the flavoring hops
- With 5 min left I added the orange zest and coriander
- Added the chiller just prior to flameout to sanitize
- Chilled down to 70 F
- Transferred to the fermenter by letting the beer fall a foot or so to aerate
- Ended up collecting about 5.75 gal. Measured the gravity as 1.046. The sample didn't have as strong of an orange or coriander aroma as would have expected. It seemed like most of the spice got left behind in the kettle with the hops. I wonder if that was how it was expected to work
- Moved the fermenter down to the temperature controlled fermentation chamber and pitched the yeast
- 2/8/16 - The airlock was filled with yeast from a very vigorous fermentation by this morning. Cleaned it out this afternoon. The orange aroma seemed much more prominent today than it did in the sample yesterday. Very nice.
- 2/14/16 - Cleaned up the lid which had accumulated a lot of yeast trub as well as the airlock.
- 3/5/16 - Bottled this batch today. Primed with 5.5 oz of table sugar. Measured the FG of the beer as 1.011. The beer was relatively clear and was a really nice light straw color. Aroma was of Belgian yeast with the coriander and orange faded into the background a bit. Same with the flavor at this point. Captured about 6 gal of beer which netted me 58 bottles. I'll give the beer a couple weeks to bottle condition before giving it a try.
- 6/18/16 - Tasting Notes - This is a light and easy drinking beer that packs a lot of flavor. The malt balances the yeast character nicely and the spicing is restrained but comes through enough to add another complimentary dimension to the beer. I wasn't able to pin-point anything I could confidently say was a flavor contribution from the unmalted wheat but it likely was a big contributor to the smooth body of the beer.
- This cereal mash technique really led to a smoother brewday than I have been experiencing with the corn for my Flanders Reds. I am going to try this method next time. I will still ramp up the mash temp prior to adding it to the main mash to prevent conversion.
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