Belgian Witbier

[darren996]

Hi All

Did my first all grain brew today and really enjoyed it.  I have done two cooper kits so far and wasn't happy with the results so I said I might as well dive in at the deep and and start brewing all grain kits.  My setup is a 60 litre plastic bucket, two 2.7kw elements, bazooka screen and tap.  I also got a plate chiller from Santa, I was a good boy.

I got the Belgian Witbier from geterbrewed.  Really good service, fast delivery etc.  The kit came with 5.5 kg of grain, liberty hops, coriander seeds, muslin bag and whirlfloc tablet, yeast and fairly clear instructions.

Stated at 07:00 and brought 26.5 liters of water to 70 degrees.
7:35 doughed in.  Lost 6 degrees here so had to bring temp back up to 69 degrees.  Wasted a bit of time on this.  Lovely smell reminded me of ovaltine.
07:55 started 90 minute mash
9:15 heated about 6 liters of water to 80 degrees for to sparge.  I thought it would be good to sparge the first few brews that I do until I get a better picture of losses from grain and hops and trub.
9:27: Mash finished - removed bag, rang it out and dumped wort back into boiler, was left with 23 liters in boiler at this stage.  Sparge back to 26.5 liters in boiler.
10:04 Started 60 minute boil with 26.5 liters and added the liberty hops.
10;50 added whirlfloc
10:55 added 40g of orange rind.
11:00 boil off was left with 24 litres in the boiler.

Transferred 22 liters into fermentor, through the chiller plate.  Need to do some tweaking here as the temp was about 26 degrees after going through the chiller, flow rates were probably off.
Waited until wort was at 20 degrees and pitched the yeast starter.

And in all about 4 and a half hours with clean up, and I am sure I will be able to cut this down a bit as I get more familiar with my setup and techniques involved.
Og reading is 1.052 -  in range instructions state between 1.044 and 1.056

Have the hoppy apa to go so will do that in a couple of weeks..

Cheers

Darren

[Bubbles]

Congrats! Welcome to the obsession!

[Qs]

Sounds like a good first brew day, well done.

[darren996]

Thanks.. really enjoyed it, its bubbling away now, lovely smell from it.  Cant wait to do the apa kit. Officially hooked and obbsessed..

[biertourist]

Transferred 22 liters into fermentor, through the chiller plate.  Need to do some tweaking here as the temp was about 26 degrees after going through the chiller, flow rates were probably off.
Waited until wort was at 20 degrees and pitched the yeast starter.

I'd agree that the flow rate of the wort was probably too fast; you COULD do a double-pass through the chiller and have the added benefit of leaving a lot of the cold break behind...

When you do the APA just remember that with a plate chiller the total volume of wort is going to remain at a high temp for quite a while until the kettle is drained so you'll get additional isomerization and you'll also be driving off the volatile hop aroma chemicals. -You will generally get more bitter and less hoppy beers vs. an immersion chiller with this method unless you appropriately delay your hop additions to make up for it.

If it takes you 20 minutes to drain the kettle through the plate chiller after flame out/electric off then your 10 minute hop addition becomes essentially a 30 minute hop addition.  If you move your 15/10 min additions back to flame out additions you'll get closer to what you're used to with an immersion chiller.  -You can also recirculation chill through the plate chiller and back into the kettle to drop the total volume of wort's temperature down to say 50C and then start redirecting it to your fermenter.  -This will get you down below meaningful isomerization / volatilization temps faster and also help.


Adam

[darren996]

Hadn't realised that but it makes sense that the immersion chiller cools the entire batch in the kettle... i will look back on my notes to see how long it took to drain and adjust the hop additions. The witbier has only one addition at 0 minutes, but the apa has 3 additions.. thanks Adam

[darren996]

Took gravity reading there and it came in at 1010. I will check again Friday so hopefully will be bottling then. Looking at 5.5 abv

[biertourist]

Yea, probably doesn't make any real difference in a witbier that has essentially no hops and all early additions, but for hoppy beers with late additions that extra time at near boiling temps WILL make a difference and you'll see increased bitterness and decreased flavor/aroma with a plate chiller if you don't adjust the schedule.

(This is why you see commercial breweries doing whirlpool hopping; they have no choice but to use a large frame and plate chiller and leave the majority of the volume at elevated temps for long times, but they want huge aroma so they do whirlpool additions rather than 10 min or flame out additions.)


Adam

[Simon_]

At what point did you add the corriander?

I've found coriander and orange rind can need a few weeks or longer before it mellows out. I've found it overpowering at first with smaller amounts of orange rind than you've added there. But then it does get refined with time.

[darren996]

Added the corriander and orange 5 minutes before end of boil. I had a taste when i took the gravity reading and i could taste the orange. Will hopefully be bottlling tomorow night, i will have a sneaky taste in about 2 to 3 weeks but will be leaving it alone till march.

[darren996]

Had a sneaky bottle of this last night, just two weeks in the bottle at this stage..... the orange was a little prominent but it tasted good, slight pepper notes also... I didn't gag anyway so thats good..... going to leave it now for another month and have another bottle then, hopefully the orange will have settled a bit into the background.   This waiting lark is a real killer....

[Qs]

A month might be excessive. If it's done 2 weeks another week or two before bottling should be fine. If it's at 1.010 already I'd say it's probably done or very close. It'll mature in the bottles anyway and they'll need a few weeks to carb up too. You don't want to be waiting another 8 weeks.

[darren996]

Cheers qs.. tis in the bottles 2 weeks already, wont wait a month, i will have another sample in two weeks and see how it tastes... i am pretty happy with it... have to get a few more grain kits now and get some more practice in 😉

[Ideo]

Just wondering how this turned out op?

[darren996]

Hi Ideo, was very happy with the results nice creamy head, great flavour and it is a big hit with the missus. I will definately do this one again but next time I would use less orange.  I also did the hoppy apa kit from geterbrewed and I would highly recommend that alao