Greetings,
This was my very first brew, I went all-grain, against the wishes of people at brewshops and even a couple people here. I'm not an Austrailian, nor do I live in that reigon; but I really appreciate this site, and because of a couple posters here, my brew came out better than I expected.. just wanted to say that. Moving on.
The recipe I used was as follows,
base malts
------------
4lb 6-row pale malt
4lb munich malt
2lb wheat malt
specialty malts
-----------
.5 lb crystal malt
1.5 ounces chocolate malt
yeast
---------
belgian wit ale yeast (White Labs Liquid)
First I heated up about a quart of water and steeped the specialty grains in it, wrapped in cheesecloth. Worked pretty well, but I shouldn't have done this and it was my first mistake in this brew, imho, but I'll get to that in a second. Doing this ultimately messed up my 60 minute boil, I'll get to that shortly though.
Brought 3 gallons of water to 127-128 degrees on my propane burner, put heat on a tiny flame and added all my base malts. Mixed them in thoroughly, and let them have a 15 minute protein rest. After the protein rest I boiled to 158ish and again, put the heat on a tiny flame while stirring. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. Then I brought the water up to 169-170 degrees, turned heat off, while stirring violently. After 5 minutes here I removed the wort from the propane burner, and dumped it into my mash tun.
I checked the temp of the mash tun and it was at 150, I had about a qt of pre-boiled water around me in case it dropped below that. when it dropped below 150 I added the quart, stirred etc. While doing this I had brought 5 gallons (2nd mistake, used too much water) to a rollin boil on the propane burner, and had a pitcher nearby. Had the mash tun sitting on the tailgate of a truck backed under our carport, so it wasn't difficult to siphon from the mash tun back into the boiler. I took the lid off a butter container and used it to distribute the water while pouring it into the mash tun so I wouldn't disturb the grainbed. I'd put about 3 gal on top of the grainbed, siphon it out, and do that over and over again. Did it like 10 times, this was my next mistake imo. I heard wort should be drained off slow and I was using a 1 1/2 inch clear tube pumping it out at full speed, however I went back in with 3 gallons 10 or so times, so I got a decent extraction rate I guess...
So, I brought what appeared to be about 32 liters of wort (in a 36 liter boiler) about to start boiling, this is when I pitched the hops and 1lb of belgian amber sugar cubes. (2oz hallertauer, 1oz goldings) I kept having to adjust the regulator, while stirring, so it wouldn't boil over. This is what extended the boil process, anyway long story short my boil ended up being about 125 minutes instead of 60 minutes...and this was because I waited until the water started boiling before I remembered about the quart of steeped specialty grain wort I had made 2 hours earlier that was cooled, which was added and stopped the boil, this added a good 10 minutes to my time at least. This was my next mistake...
The wort was a creamy brown, almost like over creamed coffee, before I pitched the steeped specialty grain. after that, it turned into a slightly darker tone, but still a nice creamy color. Looked great and tasted great, for that matter. Sweet, creamy malty slight coffee taste .
So I had 60 lb ice in my bathtub, cooled off my 6 gallons or so of wort and now it's fermenting sitting next to me in my computer room (room that gets little sunlight, yet has perfect climate for fermentation with this yeast (68-74F))
all I can say is I hope it turns out decent. thanks again for your helpful posts, you know who you are
-Patrick
This was my very first brew, I went all-grain, against the wishes of people at brewshops and even a couple people here. I'm not an Austrailian, nor do I live in that reigon; but I really appreciate this site, and because of a couple posters here, my brew came out better than I expected.. just wanted to say that. Moving on.
The recipe I used was as follows,
base malts
------------
4lb 6-row pale malt
4lb munich malt
2lb wheat malt
specialty malts
-----------
.5 lb crystal malt
1.5 ounces chocolate malt
yeast
---------
belgian wit ale yeast (White Labs Liquid)
First I heated up about a quart of water and steeped the specialty grains in it, wrapped in cheesecloth. Worked pretty well, but I shouldn't have done this and it was my first mistake in this brew, imho, but I'll get to that in a second. Doing this ultimately messed up my 60 minute boil, I'll get to that shortly though.
Brought 3 gallons of water to 127-128 degrees on my propane burner, put heat on a tiny flame and added all my base malts. Mixed them in thoroughly, and let them have a 15 minute protein rest. After the protein rest I boiled to 158ish and again, put the heat on a tiny flame while stirring. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. Then I brought the water up to 169-170 degrees, turned heat off, while stirring violently. After 5 minutes here I removed the wort from the propane burner, and dumped it into my mash tun.
I checked the temp of the mash tun and it was at 150, I had about a qt of pre-boiled water around me in case it dropped below that. when it dropped below 150 I added the quart, stirred etc. While doing this I had brought 5 gallons (2nd mistake, used too much water) to a rollin boil on the propane burner, and had a pitcher nearby. Had the mash tun sitting on the tailgate of a truck backed under our carport, so it wasn't difficult to siphon from the mash tun back into the boiler. I took the lid off a butter container and used it to distribute the water while pouring it into the mash tun so I wouldn't disturb the grainbed. I'd put about 3 gal on top of the grainbed, siphon it out, and do that over and over again. Did it like 10 times, this was my next mistake imo. I heard wort should be drained off slow and I was using a 1 1/2 inch clear tube pumping it out at full speed, however I went back in with 3 gallons 10 or so times, so I got a decent extraction rate I guess...
So, I brought what appeared to be about 32 liters of wort (in a 36 liter boiler) about to start boiling, this is when I pitched the hops and 1lb of belgian amber sugar cubes. (2oz hallertauer, 1oz goldings) I kept having to adjust the regulator, while stirring, so it wouldn't boil over. This is what extended the boil process, anyway long story short my boil ended up being about 125 minutes instead of 60 minutes...and this was because I waited until the water started boiling before I remembered about the quart of steeped specialty grain wort I had made 2 hours earlier that was cooled, which was added and stopped the boil, this added a good 10 minutes to my time at least. This was my next mistake...
The wort was a creamy brown, almost like over creamed coffee, before I pitched the steeped specialty grain. after that, it turned into a slightly darker tone, but still a nice creamy color. Looked great and tasted great, for that matter. Sweet, creamy malty slight coffee taste .
So I had 60 lb ice in my bathtub, cooled off my 6 gallons or so of wort and now it's fermenting sitting next to me in my computer room (room that gets little sunlight, yet has perfect climate for fermentation with this yeast (68-74F))
all I can say is I hope it turns out decent. thanks again for your helpful posts, you know who you are
-Patrick
