First all grain brew planned, advice wanted please.

[ukinet]

Hello,

So a few months ago I bought a book and got interested in home brewing, I bought a small starter kit and some Coopers wheat beer then did a couple of successful brews, only about 10 bottles left so I'm in need of doing another

Anyway, I decided I'd like to do an all grain batch and looked for a reasonably priced pot to boil in, long story short I ended up with a setup as follows...

1 x 100Ltr stock pot with a tap and thermometer.
1 x 100Ltr insulated mash tun with tap, thermometer and false bottom.
1 x 100Ltr milk churn fermenter.
And various other parts.

I got a copy of beersmith and input some basic details, the recipe I'd like to brew is as follows.

100Ltr batch. there is about 5 inches of space in the milk churn with 100Ltrs in it.
15kg Wheat Malt, dark (17.7 EBC)
4.50kg Wheat Dry Extract (15.8 EBC)
Saaz hops, orange peel and coriander seeds (going for Hoegaarden clone)
4 packs of Wyeast 3068

My initial thoughts on how to brew were changed once I printed the brew steps from beersmith so I wanted to ask if my plan will work, and ask what to do at certain times.

1. Fill 90Ltrs through a carbon filter, I have very low chlorine in my water.
2. Put 15kg wheat malt in the mash tun.
3. Heat the water to 73.4.
4. Transfer 40Ltrs to the mash tun, stir then leave for 75 minutes.
5. During the 75 minutes boil the malt extract and sazz for 60 minutes adding the orange peel and corrander seeds for the last 5 minutes.
6. Pump the mashtun into the milk churn then add the rest of the water (75.6C) to fly sparge the grain (this is the confusing part for me), do I stir it up? need to heat any more etc?
7. Pump the mash tun into the milk churn.
8. Add the boiled extract, sazz, orange peel and corinder to the churn and make up to 100Ltr.
9. Cool the churn with wort cooler then add yeast and seal, I have an airlock fitted, after the fermentation I'm confident I can secondary fine as I did that with the kits ok.

The bits I'm not sure about are boiling the malt extract and wether I need to do anything more with the grain in the mash tun.

Also being new I'm probably aware this could be a total mess, I have read a few different articles and right now I'm confusing myself the more I read so I thought I'd ask and hopefully get a simple answer. Sorry if these and horrible amateur questions.

thanks for your time.

 

[aiptasia]

I'd be worried about using that much wheat malt. It gelatinizes very easily in the 52-64f range so with nearly 100% of your grist being wheat malt, you're likely to have a huge amount of gruel on your end. It might be better for you to use 2 row as your base malt and add up to about 35% wheat malt in the grain bill with some rice husks to promote good water flow through the grain bed and prevent a stuck sparge. Also, wheat has a lot of protein in it which causes chill haze. If you're thinking your witbier is going to be crystal clear when it's cold, think again. Of course, cloudy is normal for the style but if you want a clear beer, you're going to need fining agents.

You don't typically need to stir during a fly sparge. It's just rinsing off the grains and think of tricking the warm water over the grain bed like a garden watering can or a shower head. Just be sure to soak the grain bed evenly and let it drain down a little. Try to prevent channeling of the water if possible.

If you're using an airlock, consider picking up a food grade anti-foaming agent like Fermcap-S. It will help prevent a blow off. If you don't have access to that, consider using a blowoff tube run to a small bucket of sanitizer instead. Remember, blow offs are more likely than not.

Also, when you add extracts to your boil kettle, be sure to cut off the heat. This will help prevent scorching and unintended malliard reactions (darkening of the beer) until you can get all of the extract stirred in as it tends to collect near the bottom (for liquid extract) or clump up (for dry extract).

 

[rattyboh]

^this is some good advice. I also do not recommend a beer that is all wheat malt and wheat extract. But also, if I am reading this right you want to drain your mash an sparge directly into the fermenter and then add extract boiled with hops. You want to boil everything. You should be draining your mash and sparge into your kettle then boiling it for the hour with your hops and extract


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[ukinet]

I'd be worried about using that much wheat malt. It gelatinizes very easily in the 52-64f range so with nearly 100% of your grist being wheat malt, you're likely to have a huge amount of gruel on your end. It might be better for you to use 2 row as your base malt and add up to about 35% wheat malt in the grain bill with some rice husks to promote good water flow through the grain bed and prevent a stuck sparge. Also, wheat has a lot of protein in it which causes chill haze. If you're thinking your witbier is going to be crystal clear when it's cold, think again. Of course, cloudy is normal for the style but if you want a clear beer, you're going to need fining agents.

You don't typically need to stir during a fly sparge. It's just rinsing off the grains and think of tricking the warm water over the grain bed like a garden watering can or a shower head. Just be sure to soak the grain bed evenly and let it drain down a little. Try to prevent channeling of the water if possible.

If you're using an airlock, consider picking up a food grade anti-foaming agent like Fermcap-S. It will help prevent a blow off. If you don't have access to that, consider using a blowoff tube run to a small bucket of sanitizer instead. Remember, blow offs are more likely than not.

Also, when you add extracts to your boil kettle, be sure to cut off the heat. This will help prevent scorching and unintended malliard reactions (darkening of the beer) until you can get all of the extract stirred in as it tends to collect near the bottom (for liquid extract) or clump up (for dry extract).

Thanks for the reply, I'll have to do some reading as to your first comments.

I am after a cloudy beer though, I love wheat beer.
I'll make a blow off tube I think, I have seen setups with this.

 

[ukinet]

^this is some good advice. I also do not recommend a beer that is all wheat malt and wheat extract. But also, if I am reading this right you want to drain your mash an sparge directly into the fermenter and then add extract boiled with hops. You want to boil everything. You should be draining your mash and sparge into your kettle then boiling it for the hour with your hops and extract


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

OK, I see, that was confusing me a little.
Now can I circulate the liquid into the boiler so it passes through the grain a couple of times finally shutting off the tap from the boiler so all the liquid ends up in the boiler?

Thanks.

 

[ukinet]

I'd be worried about using that much wheat malt. It gelatinizes very easily in the 52-64f range so with nearly 100% of your grist being wheat malt, you're likely to have a huge amount of gruel on your end. It might be better for you to use 2 row as your base malt and add up to about 35% wheat malt in the grain bill with some rice husks to promote good water flow through the grain bed and prevent a stuck sparge. Also, wheat has a lot of protein in it which causes chill haze. If you're thinking your witbier is going to be crystal clear when it's cold, think again. Of course, cloudy is normal for the style but if you want a clear beer, you're going to need fining agents.

So after a brief look around how about changing to:

9kg pale malt, 2 row, 5.9EBC
6kg Wheat malt, dark, 17.7EBC

As I gather the rice husks are there just to add space not flavour?

Thanks again, I realise I'm asking a lot, I fear I made this too difficult for a new brewer, it's not great relying on other for help too much, I appreciate any help.

And I promise I'll document my brew once I do it, hopefully it'll help others or provide for a laugh.