Blue Moon Clone

[nilo]

Just boil 1/4lb oat flakes for last 15-20min of boil. Skip using it in the mash. I don't think it does anything in the mash other than add some starch for the enzymes to covert. You can add a little more base malt if you want to keep your OG the same.

 

[imperialipa]

Here are the details. It fermented for 4 weeks and now its carbonating in the keg. It seems is a bit flavorless and thin. Color seems ok but my first impression from drinking from the hydrometer sample is it needs more body and flavor.

Hopefully with all these details someone can suggest some changes to the recipie for round 2....

Mash grains
Pale Malt 2 row Briess 4.75 lb
White Wheat Malt Briess 3.75lb
Flaked Oats 1.00lb

Boil additions
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 1.0 oz 90 min
Ground Corriander 0.10 oz 10 min
Orange Peel Sweet 0.50 oz 5 min

Wyeast 1056 American Ale (used a starter to bump yeast count)

Mashed for 80 min at 150 degrees
Mash out 170 for 10 min

Fly sparged until I had 7.0 gallons

Efficency is at 73%

90 Min boil
Total volume to ferment 5 gal

Chilled with wort chiller to 68 degrees and pitched yeast

OG 1.052
FG 1.010

Fermenter in my fermentation tank 68 degrees

Any ideas?

 

[GusWatab]

Here are the details. It fermented for 4 weeks and now its carbonating in the keg. It seems is a bit flavorless and thin. Color seems ok but my first impression from drinking from the hydrometer sample is it needs more body and flavor.

Hopefully with all these details someone can suggest some changes to the recipie for round 2....

Mash grains
Pale Malt 2 row Briess 4.75 lb
White Wheat Malt Briess 3.75lb
Flaked Oats 1.00lb

Boil additions
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 1.0 oz 90 min
Ground Corriander 0.10 oz 10 min
Orange Peel Sweet 0.50 oz 5 min

Wyeast 1056 American Ale (used a starter to bump yeast count)

Mashed for 80 min at 150 degrees
Mash out 170 for 10 min

Fly sparged until I had 7.0 gallons

Efficency is at 73%

90 Min boil

OG 1.052
FG 1.010

Fermenter in my fermentation tank 68 degrees

Any ideas?

Imperial IPA,

How much are you making here? I am guessing a 5 gallon batch. If so, your grain bill seems to be in line but it looks like you reversed the coriander and orange peel ratio. According to Wayne, The ratio of Coriander to Orange peel should be 3 to 1. We just brewed a 5 gallon batch of this last night and used 1 oz. ground coriander (30 grams) and 1/3 oz. Valencia Orange Peel (10 grams). We steeped a 1/2 pound of flaked/rolled oats for 20 min at about 160 degrees and boiled the other 1/2 pound for the entire 60 min. An oz. of Hallertauer leaf hops were added at 60 min, Coriander tossed in at 10 min and the VOP at 5 min. Crashed temp to 70 degrees in about 17 min and it tasted heavenly!! I was very impressed at how smooth this unfermented wort was. We also ate a bit of the Oats after we pulled them from the kettle and they were quite interesting. A malty, mildly hoppy oatmeal. Suprisingly tasty...

We used (2) 3.3 lb cans of Muntons Wheat Malt Extract and (1) 1.4 lb can of Alexanders Pale Malt Kicker and 1 lb of oats used as described above.

We then topped it off with a White Labs WL001 California Ale Yeast.

We ended up with an O.G. of 1.052.

I am extremely excited to taste this after its all fermented and carb'd. This should be a beer that won't last long at all. I plan on duplicating this recipe possibly this weekend.

Brew on Brewers!!!

 

[Wayne1]

imperialipa,

Thanks for brewing the recipe as written, for the most part.

GusWatab is correct in that you seemed to have reversed the amounts on the spices. The mash temp is also on the low end. While I was able to get very good results with the lower temps and mashing oats in the mash, it seems that in the smaller amounts being used by most homebrewers, a higher mash temperature seems to be needed to get similar results.

I hereby propose this recipe as an alternative:

6 lbs. Weyermann Vienna Malt
5 lbs. Weyermann Wheat Malt (pale)
1.25 lb Flaked Oats
0.5 Rice Hulls (pre-soaked in warm water)

Pre-heat mash tun with 4 gallons of 170F water.

Remove water from tun and re-heat to achieve 170F.

Mash in grains with 4 gallons of 170F water.

Allow to rest at 154-156F for 90 min.

Add 2.25 gallons of 198 F water to raise temp to 168F

Let mash rest at 168F for 10 min.

Recirculate (vorlauf) wort for 10 min. to clarify and establish grain filter bed.

Slowly sparge with 4.5 gallons of 168F water.

Collect roughly 8.3 gallons of water in kettle. (I try to take 45-60 min to get full volume)

Start boil as soon as wort covers bottom of kettle. Boil for 90 min after total volume is collected

Add 1.7 oz Hallertau (3%) pellets 30 min into the boil. (60 min boil left)

Add 1.25 oz fresh ground coriander (10 min boil left)

Add 0.3 oz Valencia Orange Peel (5 min boil left)

Turn kettle off and whirpool (if possible) to deposit trub in center of kettle. Draw off wort from side of kettle and chill as quickly as possible.

Ferment with Wyeast 1056, Safale US05, or White Labs WLP001 at 68F

With these amounts, assuming a 72% efficiency you should end up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter @ 1.055 with IBU @15.6

This will give you a bit "bigger" beer with more mouthfeel. Feel free to experiment more with differing amounts of spices to get what does it for you.

I have never boiled oatmeal with the brew, but if it gives you what you perceive as the same flavor that Blue Moon has today, go for it.

 

[BeerBaronBob]

I hereby propose this recipe as an alternative:

6 lbs. Weyermann Vienna Malt
5 lbs. Weyermann Wheat Malt
1.25 lb Flaked Oats
0.5 Rice Hulls (pre-soaked in warm water)

Mash 154-156 for 90 min.

Sparge and collect roughly 8 gallons of water in kettle.

Start boil. Boil for 90 min total.

Add 1.7 oz Hallertau (3%) pellets 30 min into the boil. (60 min boil left)

Add 1.25 tsp fresh ground coriander (10 min boil left)

Add 0.3 tsp Valencia Orange Peel (5 min boil left)

HI Wayne, I guess I have to ask again about your note above... 1.25 tsp is quite a bit less than 1.25 oz. Are you saying that the spice amounts you used in your 15bbl batch were too much and you have scaled it back or is the corriander amount supposed to be 1.25 oz instead of tsp.?

The batch I have ready to carb this weekend has a little less Weyermann Vienna and I used Rahr White Wheat instead of the Weyermann which is a dark wheat. I also used a little Carapils and Crystal 40 and my OG was 1.055 at 73% mash eff. Im anxious to try this with the Weyermann Vienna.

 

[Wayne1]

Thanks for catching that BeerBaronBob.

I guess this was another transcription error. When I first mentioned amounts of spices, I was moving from a brewsheet for 15 bbls to 5 gallons. I made a mistake and used tsp instead of oz. I think that using these numbers, you might actually get closer to the flavor you want.

I just edited the recipe I posted earlier today.

Feel free to castigate me with vengeance

For those who have more experience brewing this beer, lately, how do those spice amounts sound to you?

 

[imperialipa]

Thanks for the advice!!!

Just so I'm understanding correctly for the spices....

1.25 OZ (not TSP) of fresh ground corriander
0.3 OZ (not TSP) of Velancia dried orange peel

 

[ekjohns]

i gave up on orange peel all together. I tried everything from ground sweet orange peel, fresh zesting 3 large oranges. I even once tried half a jar of orange marmalade with 2 fresh zested oranges at flame out and i never got orange flavor at all. If anything i got bitter beer from the zesting (and i was SUPER careful not to get any pith). It wasnt till i went with extract did i get what i want. I remember listening to some pro brewer talking about citrus oils and they said that they are so delicate the are very hard to work with. He went on to say that if you zested an orange the flavor would be amazing for an hour. Let it sit for 24 hours in the fridge and try it again and its rancid. Now if you take that orange peel dry it and let it sit in a bag for 2 months on a shelf then put it in your beer your not going to get much orange. I went as far as sucking on some of the dried orange peel and it tasted like sh*t to me.

edit - I mean no disrespect to anyone in this comment just personal fustration i have experienced with orange peel

 

[Wayne1]

imperialipa,

Correct. My measurements on spices were meant to be by weight in ounces.

ekjohns,

I appreciate your frustration with spices. While I had no problems with the dried ground spices I was using at the time, it appears to be very difficult to find an equivalent. If you are happy using the orange extract, more power to you. Others may find differently.

 

[ekjohns]

wayne1 you were also buying from spice shops which im sure helps a lot. Here in ohio the best i got is penskeys spices and they dont seem to be great at moving product so stuff sits around for awhile. I think what this means is i need to move to cali. and if your going to buy spices find a place that thats all they do

 

[Snotpoodle]

Hi Wayne,

To let you know, I brewed your recipe down here in South Africa this weekend, used the Zest of 6 small oranges, not the dried variety, using Hallertauer hops.

After cooling to pitch the yeast, the little sample that i tasted was absolutely heavenly, a very nice orange and malt taste, even the colour looked fantastic.

Excellent brew, this bad boy will be bottled in a few weeks, and probably enjoyed quite quickly.

Thanks for a great recipe.

EDIT: Would you suggest racking to secondary, and for how long? Some Belgian Beer books talk about not even filtering the yeast out at all...what would you recommend?

 

[Wayne1]

Snotpoodle,

Thank you for giving the recipe a try. Please keep us all informed on the progress of the beer.

What variety of oranges did you use? Did you also use coriander?

I would leave it ferment for at least two weeks in the main fermenter. If the FG has stabilized for three days, it will do no harm to transfer to a conditioning vessel. This will help with yeast dropping out. If you could store the conditioning tank at 4 C (40 F) this would also help. I would suggest at least one week in conditioning, perhaps two will even be better.

The beer will never drop bright. With the wheat and oats, it will always be hazy. That is part of the style characteristic.

 

[GusWatab]

Snotpoodle,

Thank you for giving the recipe a try. Please keep us all informed on the progress of the beer.

What variety of oranges did you use? Did you also use coriander?

I would leave it ferment for at least two weeks in the main fermenter. If the FG has stabilized for three days, it will do no harm to transfer to a conditioning vessel. This will help with yeast dropping out. If you could store the conditioning tank at 4 C (40 F) this would also help. I would suggest at least one week in conditioning, perhaps two will even be better.

The beer will never drop bright. With the wheat and oats, it will always be hazy. That is part of the style characteristic.

I am thinking that I will let it sit for 2 weeks in the primary, 2 weeks in the secondary and then bottle it. Bottle conditioning usually takes about 2 weeks...So I am taking the patient route on this batch. 6 weeks before I can taste the finished product.

Someone was talking about wheat beers taking a bit longer to fully condition and I was wondering if the above schedule looks ok. Thoughts??

 

[Wayne1]

I have actually found the opposite to be true. Lighter, wheat beers are ready to serve quite quickly. Every one's system and tastes are different.

I would give the bottles three weeks to fully carbonate at cellar temperatures. Otherwise, I think your schedule looks very good.

Of course, you do have to pull a sample out and chill it down for quality analysis every week.

 

[MathMan]

Alright, I figured i should go ahead and contribute another possible extract recipe. I say possible because the starting gravity ended up at 1.044 and I expected 1.054! I have to thank every one who has contributed to this thread and the attempt at recreating this beer, in particular nilo whose extract ingredientsI've used.

I didn't feel comfortable steeping the oats, so (against better judgement) I decided to steep them but after testing, they didn't contribute any gravity to the wort (I fear only astringency).

6.6# Munton's Wheat LME
1.4# Alexander's pale kicker
1/2# oats (quaker, rolled)

1.25 oz Coriander
~.4 oz Valencia Orange peel
(both McCormick's from the grocery store)

Wyeast 1056

I tried to walk the line between the original grain bill and the new amounts of spices (with adjustments for the 3:1 ratio). It's bubbling away in the primary (no plans for secondary) and I'll check on it again in a couple weeks.

My only real concern is the starting gravity, I can't figure it out! I put 5.25 gal in the primary instead of 5 gal, but I calculated to account for 5.25 gal. Would it be possible that by not stirring prior to taking a sample, the gravity of the sample is weaker than expected? I have a 3 gallon brew pot and added water to the primary to make-up 5.25 gal. It was immediatley after adding the water that I took my sample. Admittedly I'm new to home brewing, but calculations should be my strong point. I'm perplexed...

Thanks again and I'll update with results.

 

[DougE]

So my first attempt to all grain was brewing this recipe, and the mashing was a failure. Now that I've brewed a different AG recipe, and it turned out great, I'm ready to give this recipe a try again. Maybe this weekend if I can get some warm weather.

I've been following the recipe as it has evolved, and here is what I'm thinking (mostly copying nilo's last attempt). Please provide any feedback.

MASH
5# 2 row
4.5# white wheat malt
2# crystal 10L
1/2# Carapils
1/2# rice hulls

BOIL
1/4lb flaked oats (60mins)
1oz hallertauer (aiming for 17.5 IBU) (60 mins)
3 tsp ground coriander (10 mins)

1/2oz orange extract
S-05 dry yeast

Also, as an AG newbie, I had some questions.

1. I am planning on using (pre-soaked) rice hulls. Is there a reason that you didn't for your recipe?
2. What is the reason for the addition of crystal and cara-pils? What do they add to the beer? (Again, just curiosity question from a newbie).
3. A few pages back, Wayne suggested using 1/2# Weyermann CaraFoam instead of 1/2# cara-pils. Is there much of a difference? Which is better?
4. When do you add the orange extract? Flame-out? Primary? Secondary? And do you just dump it in or do you do something special?

Thanks. I'm sure I'll probably come up with some more questions before the weekend.

 

[Snotpoodle]

Snotpoodle,


What variety of oranges did you use? Did you also use coriander?

I would leave it ferment for at least two weeks in the main fermenter.

If you could store the conditioning tank at 4 C (40 F) this would also help.

The beer will never drop bright. With the wheat and oats, it will always be hazy.

Hi Wayne,

Yep, cracked some fresh coriander seed, lovely aroma. The oranges, they were locally grown Valencia's.

I'll leave the brew in the fermenter for 2 weeks minimum then, however I will be hard pressed to condition the brew at 4C.

I am quite happy with the style being cloudy, as all my brews seem to have a haze

I did however get a stuck fermentation last night (48 hours in), gave it a bit of a wiggle and 10 mins later the yeasties were munching again.Strange.

 

[mccabedoug]

Alright, I figured i should go ahead and contribute another possible extract recipe. I say possible because the starting gravity ended up at 1.044 and I expected 1.054! I have to thank every one who has contributed to this thread and the attempt at recreating this beer, in particular nilo whose extract ingredientsI've used.

I didn't feel comfortable steeping the oats, so (against better judgement) I decided to steep them but after testing, they didn't contribute any gravity to the wort (I fear only astringency).

6.6# Munton's Wheat LME
1.4# Alexander's pale kicker
1/2# oats (quaker, rolled)

1.25 oz Coriander
~.4 oz Valencia Orange peel
(both McCormick's from the grocery store)

Wyeast 1056

I tried to walk the line between the original grain bill and the new amounts of spices (with adjustments for the 3:1 ratio). It's bubbling away in the primary (no plans for secondary) and I'll check on it again in a couple weeks.

My only real concern is the starting gravity, I can't figure it out! I put 5.25 gal in the primary instead of 5 gal, but I calculated to account for 5.25 gal. Would it be possible that by not stirring prior to taking a sample, the gravity of the sample is weaker than expected? I have a 3 gallon brew pot and added water to the primary to make-up 5.25 gal. It was immediatley after adding the water that I took my sample. Admittedly I'm new to home brewing, but calculations should be my strong point. I'm perplexed...

Thanks again and I'll update with results.

Steeping flaked oats, flaked wheat or crystal malt will NOT contribute any fermentable sugars unless some 'base' grain such as pale, pilsner, munich malt, etc. is present to enzymatically convert the starches to fermentable sugars. You will get some haze from the oats and maybe a little mouthfeel, but no fermentable sugars.

Regarding your OG, I agree, you should have been above 1.050. Kinda hard to miss your OG with extract. Basic question that always gets asked when this comes up from new brewers: how vigorously did you stir before you took your sample? In other words, is there a chance that your sample was a bit watery since your wort was not sufficiently mixed? Just a thought. Either way, your beer will be drinkable.

Lastly, even though this is not a classic wit, making this type of beer and/or wits was THE primary reason I went all grain. I am convinced that you simply cannot make a Blue Moon or (and I know I am stretching since the beer in this thread is not a wit in the classic sense) a Hoegaarden with extract or with extract and grains. I couldn't and I tried my hardest over a couple years. My first AG was a wit and after that, there was no going back.

 

[nilo]

Steeping flaked oats, flaked wheat or crystal malt will NOT contribute any fermentable sugars unless some 'base' grain such as pale, pilsner, munich malt, etc. is present to enzymatically convert the starches to fermentable sugars. You will get some haze from the oats and maybe a little mouthfeel, but no fermentable sugars.

Regarding your OG, I agree, you should have been above 1.050. Kinda hard to miss your OG with extract. Basic question that always gets asked when this comes up from new brewers: how vigorously did you stir before you took your sample? In other words, is there a chance that your sample was a bit watery since your wort was not sufficiently mixed? Just a thought. Either way, your beer will be drinkable.

Lastly, even though this is not a classic wit, making this type of beer and/or wits was THE primary reason I went all grain. I am convinced that you simply cannot make a Blue Moon or (and I know I am stretching since the beer in this thread is not a wit in the classic sense) a Hoegaarden with extract or with extract and grains. I couldn't and I tried my hardest over a couple years. My first AG was a wit and after that, there was no going back.

From my experience, you get good amounts of fermentable sugars when steeping crystal malts, even without a base malt. The amount will depend on the kilning level, more sugars for Crystal 10L, less for Crystal 120L.

 

[MathMan]

Thanks Mccabedoug! I had a feeling that by taking the reading before stiring the wort I had gotten a "weaker" sample. I was so anxious to use my new hydrometer (before i didn't have one at all), that I must've been my mistake.

Regarding AG brewing, I can't wait to get a set-up, but right now my wife is in the Air Force and we'll be relocating in the next few months so even if I had the money, I need to get settled before adding to my set-up too much. Hopefully I can still make some palatable "wit" beers with extracts until then.

 

[mccabedoug]

From my experience, you get good amounts of fermentable sugars when steeping crystal malts, even without a base malt. The amount will depend on the kilning level, more sugars for Crystal 10L, less for Crystal 120L.

Yup, I checked and you're right and I'm wrong. I guess you do get some fermentables from steeping caramel malts. Not as much as if you mashed them, but some nonetheless. Thanks!

 

[mccabedoug]

Thanks Mccabedoug! I had a feeling that by taking the reading before stiring the wort I had gotten a "weaker" sample. I was so anxious to use my new hydrometer (before i didn't have one at all), that I must've been my mistake.

Regarding AG brewing, I can't wait to get a set-up, but right now my wife is in the Air Force and we'll be relocating in the next few months so even if I had the money, I need to get settled before adding to my set-up too much. Hopefully I can still make some palatable "wit" beers with extracts until then.

No worries, you will make excellent beers using extract w/grains. I did that for 5 years before going AG. The taste of my extract w/grains wits was excellent. I just couldn't get that white, hazy look until I went fully AG.

You'll know when the time is right to go AG.

 

[bmickey]

I am making this tomorrow!

 

[GusWatab]

Well here is an update on my attempt at the Blue Moon style...

I came up with an extract recipe getting as close to wayne's wheat/pale/oats ratio, and posted it a couple weeks ago. It has tasted great each time i've tasted it.

I just racked it to secondary and had a little side by side with a Blue Moon and I think the homebrew had a bit more mouthfeel probably due to boiling a half lb of oats. It tasted phenomenal and I could taste plenty of orange. i used 10 grams of sweet orange peel and at this point I can definetely taste it. That may mellow a bit more but we'll see. I had an O.G. of 1.054 and today had an S.G. of 1.017. I was hoping that would have been lower...oh well.

I am suprised at how much darker the homebrew turned out. Here are a couple photos of the side by side and of the secondary.

Gotta love brewing in the MN Winters!

 

[bmickey]

I hope you all can bare with me here, This will be my first AG batch this weekend and I wanted to verify the process you all think is best. From what I read i will be doing a batch sparge as follows:

I'm heating up about 4 gallons of water to 169F and will add that to my grains in my 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler with false bottom. I'm aiming to keep the temp at 155 for 90 minutes.

At the end of the 90 minutes i am going to vorlauf a few minutes and then drain that first batch of wort to my keggle.

Immediately following I will add 5 gallons of sparge water to my mashtun at 168 degrees and I'm not sure how long I should let that soak before vorlauf'ing and draining to kettle.

I am aiming to get 7 gallons roughly to my kettle to boil down to 5.25 gallons roughly.

On the boil side I planned on adding 3 tsp of ground coriander at 80 min and also 1 tsp of McCormick's Valencia Orange Peel at 85 minutes. good? seems like there is a ton of back and forth on how much to use...

Does this sound good? I am unsure on the sparge water/soak time.

let me know if anything else seems out of whack!

Thanks all for your help!

 

[bmickey]

Hi Joe! Thanks man, but seriously, nervous that I'll screw this up but can't wait!! I already have a second one figured out, Ed Wort's recipe.

 

[MathMan]

bmickey, as you mentioned, there's been a lot of back and forth about the ratios of coriander to orange peel and I believe Palmer in How to Brew says "discretion is the better part of flavor", but I believe the original ratio was given in terms of weight, not volume (so, 3:1 oz as opposed to tsp)

 

[ThomInSC]

Wow, what an awesome thread. I am just about ready to give it a go with Wayne's last recipe as follows but have just a couple of questions.

6 lbs. Weyermann Vienna Malt
5 lbs. Weyermann Wheat Malt
1.25 lb Flaked Oats
0.5 Rice Hulls (pre-soaked in warm water)
Add 1.7 oz Hallertau (3%) pellets 30 min into the boil. (60 min boil left)
Add 1.25 oz fresh ground coriander (10 min boil left)
Add 0.3 oz Valencia Orange Peel (5 min boil left)

Looking at supplier options, the Weyermann Wheat I am seeing is Pale Wheat. Is this correct for the style? The SRM looks right.

Based on my suppliers Hallertau pellets (3.8%) the IBUs will be more like 20.5 per Beersmith. Do I lower the .ozs, add later or just call this close enough to the original 17.5 units? (Definitely like the non-bitterness of the commercial Blue Moon).

Been using rice hull on all my AG brews but this is the first I have heard of pre-soaking. What is the reason for this?

Finally, I might be crazy but I seem to see somewhere buried in either this thread or another whit thread about pitching two smack packs in a 5 gal batch. Is one 1056 enough?

Thanks again for a long, great thread with lots of info and I hope to contribute my results in the coming weeks.

 

[BeerBaronBob]

bmickey, as you mentioned, there's been a lot of back and forth about the ratios of coriander to orange peel and I believe Palmer in How to Brew says "discretion is the better part of flavor", but I believe the original ratio was given in terms of weight, not volume (so, 3:1 oz as opposed to tsp)

To clarify Wayne suggested starting with the ratio that the original Blue Moon was deigned at.

3:1 is the ratio of corriander to orange peel but the approx equivalent amount for a 5 gal batch is 1oz ground corriander for the last 10 minutes of boil and 0.3 oz of ground sweet valencia orange peel for the last 5 minutes of boil - ground or fresh zest has been suggested as well.

Good luck with your brew.

 

[BeerBaronBob]

I hope you all can bare with me here, This will be my first AG batch this weekend and I wanted to verify the process you all think is best. From what I read i will be doing a batch sparge as follows:

I'm heating up about 4 gallons of water to 169F and will add that to my grains in my 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler with false bottom. I'm aiming to keep the temp at 155 for 90 minutes.

At the end of the 90 minutes i am going to vorlauf a few minutes and then drain that first batch of wort to my keggle.

Immediately following I will add 5 gallons of sparge water to my mashtun at 168 degrees and I'm not sure how long I should let that soak before vorlauf'ing and draining to kettle.

...

On the boil side I planned on adding 3 tsp of ground coriander at 80 min and also 1 tsp of McCormick's Valencia Orange Peel at 85 minutes. good? seems like there is a ton of back and forth on how much to use...

let me know if anything else seems out of whack!

I would suggest a few things... First preheat your mash tun with some hot water for about 10 minutes with the cover on. Then pour that out right before you start the first water addition to get to 154F. My Beersmith software says that initial infusion water volume is about 14 Qts at 170F to get about 10# of grain that is 68F up to 154F. Have some extra hot and cold water available to fine tune your temps if you need to. You dont need to be exact. Wait about 5 minutes to measure your temp after you stir the grain and put the lid on. Write down notes of your actual temps as you go along so you can go back and review this next time you plan your brew.

At the end of your 90 min initial mash at 154F I would suggest adding a mash-out step which brings the mash temp up to 168F by adding/infusing more water, stirring, putting the cover back on and waiting 10 more minutes before vourlaufing and draining your first runnings. My Beersmith software says to add just about 2 gal at 198F to get your temps up to 168F. This is where I find I miss most often being too low and need additional hot water avail.

When draining your first and second runnings I would suggest you open the drain very very slowly and a maximum of 1/2 turn of your drain valve until near the end when you can open it up more. It might take 45 minutes to do this step. If the flow stops before you have the tun drained, open the lid, restir everything up good and revourlauf before you continue with your first runnings. Wayne suggests using about 1/2# of presoaked rice hulls in your mash to help with keeping your first/second runnings draining properly because of the wheat malt.

After the first runnings are drained you can proceed with your batch sparge. To get your final boil volume from the second runnings your sparge water addition should be about 3.9 Gal and I would suggest adding that water at about 172-174F because your grain temp will most likely drop from the first runnings being drained. I think you can do this in one step instead of two.

Total volume for both runnings should be just shy of 8 gal to allow for evaporation loss during your 90 minute boil. If you have a hydrometer you should measure the specific gravity which should be about 1.047. This will give you a good indication of what mash efficiency you achieved.

Finally read the last comment I made about the spice addition times. You have confused the instructions a little. The spices get added at the last 10 minutes of the boil.

Good luck with your brew! Hope this helps more than confuses you.