Recipe Suggestions

[jgoodhart]

I am going to be brewing a Belgian Wit Beer recipe I found online. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on the recipe or if it looked okay.

Recipe: All-Grain Wit Beer

5 gallon batch size
OG – 1.044 – 1.052
FG – 1.008 – 1.016
Color(SRM) – 2-4
IBUs – 10-20
ABV 4.5-5.5%

Grains: 3.25 lbs American 2row Pale
3.0 lbs German Wheat Malt (light)
3.0 lbs German White Wheat Malt (light)

Hops: 0.30 oz-hallertauer @ 60 mins.
0.70 oz-hallertauer @ 15 mins.

Specialty: 1.0 oz Coriander Seed (crushed) @ 15 mins
1.0 oz Bitter Orange Peel @ 15 mins
Whirfloc Tab @ 5 mins.

Yeast: Safbrew-#WB-06

Mash Schedule:

Protein rest at 120 degrees for 20-30 minutes is recommended.
Strike grains at 162 degrees.
Mash grains at 152 degrees for 60 minutes.
Sparge with 160-165 degree water.

First, I was wondering if this looks okay? I also was wondering about the coriander and orange peel addition amounts and time? Also, not quite sure about the "protein rest" since I have never done one? Can anyone give me some insight on the recipe itself and the process of a protein rest? Thanks!

-I have a 10 gal. round/cooler mash tun with a ss braid. I heard wheat based beers were hard to mash with this style mash tun due to stuck sparges? any tips?

 

[joyceman]

Im doing my first AG wit this weekend and have been looking at recipes.

Most recipes Ive seen have pils malt instead of two row. Most that ive seen have a pound of flaked wheat & flaked oats as well.

In my extract batches ive used 3 tsp or cracked coriander and 3 tsp of bitter orange peel at 10min. Not sure how that translates to ounces, but Ive been happy with past results.

Re the protein rest, heres a good site that Ive found to help calc multiple infusions ...http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/

Finally re stuck sparges, rice hulls. I use a handful in every mash anyway, theyre so cheap why not?

 

[jgoodhart]

Thanks! How did you crack your coriander and did you put the coriander and orange peel in a hop bag or just toss them in?

 

[joyceman]

I cracked the coriander with a pill crusher and just tossed everything into the boil.

Theres a discussion here about coriander and crushing. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/coriander-where-i-found-some-cheap-how-do-you-guys-crush-393560/

Im thinking about toasting it this time as recommended by a couple of posters in that link.

 

[jgoodhart]

I will probably just do the ziplock bag method and toss them in. I bought the grains and other stuff that I posted previously and plan to brew sometime this week! I didn't get your message in time to try and change it up. I'll let you know how it turns out. Let me know your recipe and how it turns out as well when it's finished. Thanks and good luck!

 

[BierMuncher]

I always use a paint strainer to hold my spices. Makes for a cleaner transfer and eventual cleanup.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/just-another-brew-day-pics-99893/index7.html

 

[joyceman]

Anyone have any advice on the use carapils when brewing an AG wit.

I have generally used Carapils in my extract wit batches, usually 4-8 ounces in a batch. Does the mashing of oats eliminate the need for Carapils? I was planning on adding around .5 lbs of oats.

 

[rklinck]

Anyone have any advice on the use carapils when brewing an AG wit.

I have generally used Carapils in my extract wit batches, usually 4-8 ounces in a batch. Does the mashing of oats eliminate the need for Carapils? I was planning on adding around .5 lbs of oats.

The wheat should do the same thing that Carapils would do (add to head retention).

Also, if you are looking to make a wit that is close to the traditional style, you should probably replace some of the wheat malt with unmalted wheat. From what I have read, the major differences between Belgian Wits and German Weisses is that Wits generally contain some unmalted wheat (and the corriander and orange peel).

 

[joyceman]

The wheat should do the same thing that Carapils would do (add to head retention).

Also, if you are looking to make a wit that is close to the traditional style, you should probably replace some of the wheat malt with unmalted wheat. From what I have read, the major differences between Belgian Wits and German Weisses is that Wits generally contain some unmalted wheat (and the corriander and orange peel).

Flaked wheat is unmalted, right?

 

[rklinck]

Flaked wheat is unmalted, right?

Yessir.

 

[joyceman]

jgoodhart, since you asked, heres the recipe that im boiling this weekend...

4 lbs wheat malt
3 lbs pils malt
1 lb flaked wheat
1 lb oats

1 oz Tettnang 60 mins
1 oz Hallertauer 2 mins
3 tsp cracked coriander 10 mins
3 tsp orange peel 10 mins

wyeast 3944

protein rest @ 122 for 20 mins
mash at 152 60 mins
90 minute boil

I should end up with an OG around 1049, but ive been getting some high efficiency numbers since I bought a barleycrusher, so might end up arounf 1055 or so.

Yessir.

Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[rklinck]

Sounds interesting. Out of curiosity, why did you decide to go with the Wyeast instead of the WB-06? To pitch the proper amount of yeast, the Wyeast will require a starter.

EDIT: I just noticed that I was not responding to the OP, so you did not switch yeasts.

 

[Mnotaro]

This is a side question but by substituting out the malted wheat for flaked wheat and oats wouldn't you have decreased the amount of your fermentable sugars in the wort? Or does the protein rest allow those to modify so that you can extract fermentable sugars from them?

 

[rklinck]

Nope. The flaking process makes the sugar available assuming you mash them with base malts. If you look at How To Brew, the PPG yield for flaked wheat is only 1 point lower than for malted wheat. As I understand it, the flaking process involves running the wheat/oat through hot rollers that serve the same purpose as a cereal mash.

 

[Mnotaro]

Ah I see. So the need to mash with a base malt is that malted grains have the enzymes to convert the sugars in the flaked grains?

 

[JSGT09]

I'm making a Wit this weekend and will be using flaked wheat for the first time. Really anxious to see how it comes out. This recipe is from Brewing Classic Styles

5.5 lbs Pils malt
5 lbs Flaked wheat
1 lbs Flaked oats
.25 lbs Munich malt
.5 lbs Rice hulls
*Notes: Step mash, 122°F for 15 min, raise to 154°F over next 15 min, hold for 60 min total

1 oz Hallertau 60 mins

1.5 oz Fresh citrus zest 5 mins
.4 oz Crushed coriander 5 mins
.03 oz Dry chamomile 5 mins

 

[rklinck]

Yep. The base malts have the enzmatic power to convert the other grains.

 

[Mnotaro]

Awesome thanks for the explanation

 

[jgoodhart]

So, I brewed my recipe yesterday and came in really low on my OG (1.035??). Estimated OG was 1.046 using beersmith software. Beersmith gave me the mash volume of 3.7 gal. using the 1.25/lb of grain and 5.6 gal. sparge water for 9.25lb grain bill. I used both volumes and measured to the T. My mash went okay as I was high at 154 at strike. I mixed my grains, stirred and got it down to my target mash temp of 152 within 5-10mins or so. I mashed as usual for 60 mins. Then I sparged the 5.6 gal. water at 180 degrees. Let the water sit for 10 min before, vorloufed and drained into kettle. I ended up with about 8 gals. pre-boil (which I thought was high being a 5 gal batch with a 60 min boil). Beersmith gave me a pre-boil volume of 7.37 gal. I ended up leaving some sparge water behind, but not much because I thought 8 gal was too much pre-boil. (Which could have contributed to low OG)?? I am thinking its due to a volume problem but I followed beersmith on my last AG batch and came in pretty close? Does anyone have any suggestions of what the problem could have been? Or if it is a volume problem, is there any other program/calculations I can use to be more accurate with my sparge water and overall pre-boil volume?

I also did not do a protein rest (as recommended) because reading up on it, it did not seem necessary in my case. Any help would be appreciated since I am new to the AG!

 

[dvb]

8 gallons seems way off. My 5-gallon batches involve a pre-boil volume of 6.4 gallons, per BeerSmith.

 

[Schol-R-LEA]

The lack of a protein rest should not have affected the gravity very much, so I doubt that that would be the issue;the main purpose of the protein rest is to break down the larger proteins, especially gluten, which is present in large amounts in unmalted grain but largely broken down already in well-modified malt. The reason you want to break these down is because they tend to slow the sparge, and contribute to haze as well (though with a wit, haze isn't considered a fault).

As for the amount of pre-boil runoff, 8 gallons does seem high, but the usual solution is to get all of the pre-boil wort into your kettle(s) and take extra time boiling it down. I've had runoffs that were as large as 10 gallons before I started using BrewSmith (I was using a step infusion as per Palmer, which tends to use a lot of water for the infusions). It meant some very long boils, but the only side effect of this was that the color tended to be a bit darker than expected. As long as you know your rate of boil-off, and know the point at which you have about an hour remaining, you should be able to set the hop additions correctly.