Fat City Wheat

So, since my first all-grain was made of fail I've purchased a false bottom and brewed another beer. This one went perfect which makes me one happy camper and gives us: Fat City Wheat

Fat City Wheat

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------
06-D Light Hybrid Beer, American Wheat or Rye Beer

Min OG: 1.040 Max OG: 1.055
Min IBU: 15 Max IBU: 30
Min Clr: 3 Max Clr: 6 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.50 Wort Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.75
Anticipated OG: 1.048 Plato: 11.98
Anticipated SRM: 3.6
Anticipated IBU: 16.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
30.2 3.25 lbs. Pilsener Germany 1.038 2
69.8 7.50 lbs. Wheat Malt America 1.038 2


Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Hallertauer Pellet 3.50 15.7 60 min.
0.50 oz. Saazer Pellet 3.25 1.2 5 min.


Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale

Click to expand...

Here's the grains, mixed with 1/2 lb of rice hulls:



I used two vials of WLP300, as i didn't have a starter ready. I also recalculated the IBUs for the hops I've had in the freezer for a couple months.



My original intention was to brew up a rendition of my previous american wheat, but this was kind of done on the fly and I didn't have a chance to stop home. I could not for the life of me remember the grains i used, so we just used the grains from BYO 150 - The Paulaner Hefewiezen clone one of my favorites

The first step we needed to take care of was fixing the mash tun. We took it all apart to find that it was completely stuffed with grain, even with all the water we had forced through it. Once clean, i installed the false bottom you see at the right on the bottom picture.

Then came the mash. We added 4 gallon of strike water to preheat the mash tun, then emptied before putting in the grains. when we added it back in, our temperature was sitting at 120F.

Then came the decoction mash! I knew it wasn't necessary, especially for an american brew (with obvious german influences) but I've read about it alot so what they hell! I removed about 40% of the grist (it came to about 3 gallons) and brought it to a boil. We boiled for a little over 20 minutes, stirring continuously. Adding back, to the mash, this brought us up to 150F. I wanted to go higher, so we did another decoction (just brought it to a boil and added) for 154F and another gallon for 158F.

We mashed for an hour, stirring every 15 or so. It dropped from 158 to 153 in this time. We then sparged with 4 gallons of 170F water. Vorlaufing at first, the runnings ran joyously clear!



That is one happy wheat cake!



Now comes the easy part...starting the boil...

We made a bit of a mess during the boil.

...for the record, my beers are the Black Hart Irish Stout, the Franziskaner and the glass filled with my last bottle of Malty Irish Ale



sanitation during the boil...i use iodophor

Pouring the beautiful, beautiful wort



I was shooting for 5.5 gallons and this being only my 2nd session, i haven't quite gotten it down yet. I'll need to sparge with more and get the temperature a little more controlled on the boil. I added bottled water to bring it up (it was at about 4.8)

and YES, that's water



She's now fermenting away at my friend's house. His closet keeps a steady 65F at all times (lucky bastage)

I had a couple of questions about this session and future AG, if anyone with some knowledge would care to help out a newbie AGer :cross:

1. While I was doing the decoction, the grist in the mash tun dropped to 105...should i be controlling this? Will it affect the grains or will it just make it more difficult to reach my intended temp?

2. If you look at the cake of grains that was left in the tun, it looks like a lot of the water went down the sides...is this a sign that it was not going through the grains properly during the sparge?

3. For PM, i always just poured 170F water over the grains and it seemed to work fine. This time i poured the entire 4 gallons of sparge water in there and stirred it, then ran it out like the mash...was this a bad idea? what is your best method? i've seen the sprinkler thingees but i guess i never thought it was necessary.

4. Anything else you see in the pictures that I could change to possibly improve my methods? Any advice is appreciated...I've been partial mashing for a long time, but still very new to AG...and I'm gonna go crazy with it!

I'm hoping to swap this beer next month. We'll see how it goes...i'm sure it will be awesome!

:rockin:

P.S. Label pictures to come

Fermenting!!!

Looks good, just a few comments. The decoction looks a little thin, I try and aim for the consistency of oatmeal. Also did you bring the grains to a conversion temp before boiling? You really want the pre boiled grains to be fully converted. I would not worry about the grains dropping in temp to much.

It does look like you got some channeling but im not sure I would worry about it with a batch sparge. I usely pour the water in, stir like crazy, let it sit for 10 min. stir again. Wait a min or two, and then re circulate until clear and then let it rip.

I love the "Im pregnant" book behind the fermenter!!!!!!!!!!!:cross:

lol, it goes well with the "don't drink and park, accidents cause people"

i had the mash at 120F and stirred it up a bunch before i pulled from it...was that too low?

i got 65% efficiency...which is decent, i guess, but would like to do better.

EDIT: These were my resources:

http://www.strandbrewers.org/techinfo/decoct2.htm

http://community.livejournal.com/homebrewing/441946.html

DeathBrewer said:

...4. Anything else you see in the pictures that I could change to possibly improve my methods? Any advice is appreciated...

Click to expand...

Get a haircut.

No, I'm just joking, my hair was as long as yours until about 10 months ago (but who's counting?).

Looks like a good brew session.

I'm pretty new to AG but thought I'd add my two cents...

1. I guess you should take this into account when you're doing your decoction - I think it will only make a difference to reaching your next step temp though.

2. If you batch sparge I wouldn't worry, just make sure you give it a good stir.

3. This is what I do, ie batch sparging. The sprinkler thingee is fly sparging.