So this was my first recipe, I have no reason or logic to it other than ..... "Hey why not?"
1 gallon batch
3 quarts mash (1 hour @ 152-158, stove top is inconsistent but I manage )
4 quarts sparge @ 170
75 minute boil
Batch one:
1.5 lbs Maris Otter
0.25 lbs Munich Dark
0.25 lbs Crystal 45
0.125 lbs Crystal 150
0.03125 lbs Chocolate malt
0.25 lbs CaraRye
0.1 lbs Rye Flakes
7g Columbus @ 75
7g Columbus @ 45
7g Columbus @30
7g Amarillo @ 15
7g Amarillo @ 5
7g Zythos @ 0
Yeast: Nottingham (re-hydrated for 15-20 minutes prior to pitching)
Batch Two:
Exact same malt bill but with a much smaller hop list (wanted to compare them side by side):
4g Columbus @ 75
4g Amarillo @ 40
2g Zythos @ 5
Batch one: was hoping for a bittersweet malty bastard with some nice rye overtones out of this and mostly succeeded, was not as sweet as I'd hoped but was damn drinkable none the less. Definitely not for people who aren't hop-heads with 42 grams of hops per gallon. Aromatic and bitter the way I like, heavy mouth feel, went down nice. Was afraid that this one was going to be so over the top as to be undrinkable but was happily surprised and was my favourite of the two.
Batch two: This is the one I was hoping for a smoother less sweet taste out of but wasn't quite my cup of tea though my friends and partner enjoyed it quite a bit. Found it too bitter and not flavourful enough, though did get nicer as it warmed and as the pint went down. Had higher hopes but hey.... still wasn't bad.
Carbing: I bottled both with 2tbsp honey and a 1/4 of water, same honey bottle both times. Batch one was perfect, not bombs, nice head.
But batch two foamed over and blew fountains when taking the caps off. Typically lost half a bottle to overflowing foam before I could salvage any of it. Curious how the smaller hop bill somehow aided over-carbing. I don't understand sugars for bottling well enough yet
Also, my closet (literally) for fermenting is usually at an ambient of 70-75F, higher than I'd like but in our tiny apartment there isn't space for a temp-controlled fermentation chamber of any kind. It serves it's purpose of keeping the carboys in the dark and the cats away from knocking them over but that's as much as I can do until we move to a bigger place.
There's a witbier left in the spreadsheet called Blanche Oreiller I converted from a BYO recipe. You can use it as a guide to understand what numbers get plugged into what. Also be careful with deleting formulas (undo will come in handy).
