Ag Hoegaarden Recipe

[seamad]

No nick, shithouse actually, around 13% less than normal but raw wheat is cheap.

 

[Nick JD]

No nick, shithouse actually, around 13% less than normal but raw wheat is cheap.

I was wondering - but then I spose you are trying to keep some flour in there.

With rice, I have hit a wall at 30% using BB malts (not galaxy though).

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Actually Nick's comment has reminded me of a question - using actual flour - could one do so in place of raw wheat.

Ironically, SWMBO who now occasionally takes an interest in the chemistry side of brewing (though still whinges profusely about the smell of boiling malt & hops in the kitchen) and asked the question. I answered as best I could - it isn't malted, so I doubt it adds much in the way of fermentability.

But eventually I'll do a wit (rather than a belgian blonde) and have a crack with some flour.

Goomba

 

[seamad]

I use either weyerman or dingemans pils which have a bit of surplus action.
Galaxy would probably improve the effeciency a bit too, have read that it can convert a nun.
I do a long mash, program the pid to ramp from 44 to 76 over 2 hours with 30 minute pauses at 62& 72 as well.

 

[Nick JD]

I use wheat flour (cake, not bread) in a few of my belgians - only like 10% though. Converts fine - but you have to sieve it in to your grain and shake it up - put in by itself to the mash and it will dumpling unless you are mashing in below 50C - even then it's liable to ball.

EDIT: the Chimays have wheat starch in them - which is basically 100% wheat "cornflour" - at the supermarket. Pretty sure it'll turn straight into maltose, unlike flour that'll leave proteins and other stuff in the mash.

 

[thylacine]

the recipe I had called for 35g coriander and 14g orange zest. I will reduce the orange to 10g and reduce the coriander to 25g and see how that comes out. I think I'll leave it in the keg for another month or so and see if the strength of the flavours reduce.

I think the coriander and orange caused over-flavours and the yeast I used is really not going to lend well to a Belgian Ale. I will wait a month and see how it tastes then. I can then try mixing it with something else.

Thanks for the tips guys.

We like citrus notes in our wheat beers. Our standard 22L recipe includes the zests of two limes, two lemons and one Valencia orange. Zests are withheld until the krausen starts to fall.

 

[Deebo]

We like citrus notes in our wheat beers. Our standard 22L recipe includes the zests of two limes, two lemons and one Valencia orange. Zests are withheld until the krausen starts to fall.

Do you boil the zests or soak them in alcohol to avoid infections? (Or is there enough alcohol in the beer to keep them at bay?)
Also, how long do you leave them in the beer?

 

[angus_grant]

We like citrus notes in our wheat beers. Our standard 22L recipe includes the zests of two limes, two lemons and one Valencia orange. Zests are withheld until the krausen starts to fall.

yep, I enjoy citrus flavours as well (I am now interested trying a version with lemon instead of orange zest) but the orange in my clone is over-powering. I'll try reducing the zest and coriander for the next batch. If that doesn't work, then perhaps dry-hopping will be the next thing to try.

cheers.

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

I've never used raw wheat - what does it do?

It gives you the shits Nick. It's a mongrel to mill and your eff goes down the toilet. I mill mine twice and use a fair whack to compensate, however, without the raw wheat mine have been so-so. It definately adds to it visually and with that tartness - and I love a tart.
I agree with you less is more with the coriander and peel and as others have said a bit of rolled oats is good. I like the Wyeast 3944 witbier better than the forbidden fruit but that is a personal thing.
Cheers
BBB

 

[darrenp]

Have to agree that raw wheat is a real pain to mill. My first and only atempt so far resulted in one burnt out drill and another that needed to be removed with an angle grinder after it slipped on the mill shaft and then the chuck locked tight and wouldn't loosen off. When the drill did catch it wrenched the whole mill over nearly breaking my arm spilling wheat all over the floor. Had to open the gap right up and run it through a few times closing it a little each time.

Other than all that raw wheat is pretty good I reckon.

 

[Jay Cee]

Are you blokes doing a cereal mash prior to your brewdy mash? While my efficiency a a bit poor, it was onlu down four percentage points when being converted alongside Joe White pale, a malt that isn't known as havig exceptional diastatic activity.

As mentioned, it is a bugger to crack, requires two run throughs. Next time I might source some flakes.

 

[darrenp]

I found this site to be pretty handy http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/whogarden-...543/index2.html

I went with a tripple decoction and ended up with an efficiency of 61%. Had read somewhere to expect around 10% lower than normal which was about right. One thing I do remember was that the decoctions gelled up like crazy and where quite an effort to clean up as I do my decoctions in my boiler and have to clean it up before transferring from the mash tun.

The grain bill I went with was 50% raw wheat, 45% Pils and 5% flaked oats. Felt a bit strange doing my homebrewing shopping in the local health food shop but saved a 2.5 hour drive.

 

[seamad]

Have thought about doing a cereal mash but last wit with the longer mash in previous post got me within 8 points of usual, too lazy to stuff around doing a seperate cereal mash as the beer was good without doing it.
I have an electric bike motor, ala qldkev on my mm2, and find cracking anything including raw wheat easy. Reckon it could make gravel.

 

[thylacine]

Do you boil the zests or soak them in alcohol to avoid infections? (Or is there enough alcohol in the beer to keep them at bay?)
Also, how long do you leave them in the beer?

The past dozen or so batches using zests, I hand wash the fruit under the tap. During washing a double-hand sized voille bag, small microwave 'bowl', tspn and grater are being boiled (bag, tspn, bowl & grater are only used for brewing). A spray bottle and a 'dipping' 2-litre bowl, each containing sanitizing fluid is used throughout. I spread some gladwrap, place bag on wrap, insert grater& spoon into bag and scrap zests (not pith) directly into bag. A small amount of boiled water is added to the bowl, zest bag inserted, bowl covered with gladwrap and microwaved for 30secs. The last half a dozen batches the zest bag has remained until fermenter cleaning. No problems...

Cheers...