Stephonovich
Well-Known Member
I made AHS Imperial Agave Wit last year (partial mash), and although I thought it was quite good, SWMBO went crazy for it. So, I managed to get away with making it for her again as a Christmas present :rockin: However, I decided to do it AG this time (2nd AG batch), and I made my own recipe, loosely based on the AHS card, and other recipes on the internet.
The flavor is a bit different than the kit; I think if I do it again I'd lower the Oats to about 0.5 lbs, as it's a bit oatmeal-ish for the style. (I'd probably replace them with wheat).
The color is the... interesting thing. Beersmith has it coming in at 3.3 SRM, with the range being 2-4 SRM. It looked OK, until I added the hops. I like Tettnang's spicy kick, but apparently they're rather vivid in color. The finished wort is some brownish/greenish/yellowish mix. Looks a bit like the color of trub from a light beer. Would adding 4 oz. or so of Carawheat (it seemed like a good fit; really anything for color that doesn't fight the flavor) help out? I don't mind being a little outside the normal range, say 6-8 SRM. The Agave helped some, although I imagine there's some trade off between color development due to a long boil, or flavor retention by adding it late, as I did (45 minutes into the boil). I used Light Agave because Amber seemed way too dark; in retrospect, maybe one of each would have been good.
Starter was a 2 L, with one drop of olive oil added. Cold crashed, decanted, pitched the slurry into 80 F wort for esters. Aerated wort for 30 minutes with an aquarium stone.
I ended up having to add about a gallon extra of water during the mash in to hold temps at 152 F, so I took the final runnings out and froze them for use as a starter later (wound up with about 7 gallons total of wort, boiled about 6).
I did a protein/beta rest at 122 F due to the high percentage of oats and wheats, and I think it paid off. There was a large protein float which formed during the boil, and also, I nailed the OG - there was some confusion when I saw 1.038, and expected 1.045. I realized Beersmith was including the 1 lb of Agave as being added during the entire boil. I pulled it out of the recipe quickly, and expected OG dropped down to... 1.038!
Finally, perhaps of note, the propane was running out about during the boil. I had a good rolling boil at the start, which dwindled down to a soft boil within about 15 minutes. About 40 minutes in, the boiling had stopped, and temps stayed around 210 F for the rest of the time. I'm not sure how that may have affected the hot break and/or color, if at all.
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.5 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.80 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 3.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 16.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Measured Mash Efficiency: 80.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 2.6 %
4 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 41.0 %
3 lbs 8.0 oz Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3 35.9 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4 10.3 %
1 lbs Agave Extract (1.5 SRM) Sugar 5 10.3 %
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 16.9 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
1.00 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 8 -
0.50 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 9 -
0.50 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 10 -
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Aroma Steep 5.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944) Yeast 12 -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs 12.0 oz
----------------------------
Protein Rest Add 8.75 qt of water and heat to 122.0 122.0 F 20 min
Mash In Add 5.30 qt of water at 210.5 F 152.0 F 60 min
Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.64gal, 3.10gal) of 168.0 F water
The flavor is a bit different than the kit; I think if I do it again I'd lower the Oats to about 0.5 lbs, as it's a bit oatmeal-ish for the style. (I'd probably replace them with wheat).
The color is the... interesting thing. Beersmith has it coming in at 3.3 SRM, with the range being 2-4 SRM. It looked OK, until I added the hops. I like Tettnang's spicy kick, but apparently they're rather vivid in color. The finished wort is some brownish/greenish/yellowish mix. Looks a bit like the color of trub from a light beer. Would adding 4 oz. or so of Carawheat (it seemed like a good fit; really anything for color that doesn't fight the flavor) help out? I don't mind being a little outside the normal range, say 6-8 SRM. The Agave helped some, although I imagine there's some trade off between color development due to a long boil, or flavor retention by adding it late, as I did (45 minutes into the boil). I used Light Agave because Amber seemed way too dark; in retrospect, maybe one of each would have been good.
Starter was a 2 L, with one drop of olive oil added. Cold crashed, decanted, pitched the slurry into 80 F wort for esters. Aerated wort for 30 minutes with an aquarium stone.
I ended up having to add about a gallon extra of water during the mash in to hold temps at 152 F, so I took the final runnings out and froze them for use as a starter later (wound up with about 7 gallons total of wort, boiled about 6).
I did a protein/beta rest at 122 F due to the high percentage of oats and wheats, and I think it paid off. There was a large protein float which formed during the boil, and also, I nailed the OG - there was some confusion when I saw 1.038, and expected 1.045. I realized Beersmith was including the 1 lb of Agave as being added during the entire boil. I pulled it out of the recipe quickly, and expected OG dropped down to... 1.038!
Finally, perhaps of note, the propane was running out about during the boil. I had a good rolling boil at the start, which dwindled down to a soft boil within about 15 minutes. About 40 minutes in, the boiling had stopped, and temps stayed around 210 F for the rest of the time. I'm not sure how that may have affected the hot break and/or color, if at all.
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.5 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.80 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 3.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 16.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Measured Mash Efficiency: 80.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 2.6 %
4 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 41.0 %
3 lbs 8.0 oz Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3 35.9 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4 10.3 %
1 lbs Agave Extract (1.5 SRM) Sugar 5 10.3 %
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 16.9 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
1.00 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 8 -
0.50 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 9 -
0.50 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 10 -
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Aroma Steep 5.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944) Yeast 12 -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs 12.0 oz
----------------------------
Protein Rest Add 8.75 qt of water and heat to 122.0 122.0 F 20 min
Mash In Add 5.30 qt of water at 210.5 F 152.0 F 60 min
Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.64gal, 3.10gal) of 168.0 F water