I tweaked it to suit what I had. Main grain difference is I also used some flaked wheat and a bit more acid malt. I used a Floris wit yeast.
The brewday started off well but then went downhill fast...
Bohemian floor-malted pilsner malt is main malt. This benefits from a protein rest.
Very happy with yeast recovered from Floris Wit
First Step - Start the Cereal Mash
Liquor added to boiler at 45C to start cereal mash
Cereal Mash changed colour after 20 mins at 40C (Glucan / Gum rest)
This was my first cereal mash and I was suprised that it was going quite well.
I was able to keep temp +-1c by manually tweeking boiler & stirring.
Hubris --- Disaster, funny smell then smoke coming from under boiler. Turn off power, empty cereal mash into plastic bucket and investigate.
It looks like some wort has leaked through element seal and was carbonizing and burning underneath. Also looks like temp-overheat module (previously disconnected) was overheating.
I took element and its seal out and reviewed the damage. Not pretty
After some hand-wringing and a post on Jims. I decided to try to clean up element and refit.
More info on mending boiler in post: another post
I was very lucky that I had an old 4 gal tea-urn that was buried under my bench as a spare HLT. I'd bought this off eBay in July 2010 and hadn't used it since 1 test boil then. I thought I could use this for cereal mash and hopefully boiler would be fixed in time for boiling wort after the mash.
Pressed on with cereal mash. While looking into boiler problem, the cereal mash had cooled down to about 30C. Worried that lactic acid bacteria may take hold, but nothing to lose.
HLT2 - Replacement to boil cereal mash. Pic just before test boil.
Added cereal mash to HLT2 and rose to next step 50C - protein rest.
Thought I deserved a beer at this stage. Munich Blonde. I'm saving Franziskaner tap for this Wit!
68C - Next Cereal Mash step. BTW: All malts & hops from The Malt Miller
MEANWHILE - Start malt mash - dough in at Protein rest temp 50C
Boil Cereal Mash 15 mins
Main malt mash after protein rest. Gone all milky.
Added cereal mash (jugged in) and added liquor to achieve target mash temp 68C (or so).
Fernox LSX had had 2 hours in a warm room to set element in place. Testing for leaks with a test boil
After running off initial mash add liquor for 1st batch sparge. Sparging suprisingly trouble-free. No hint of it being stuck. Lots of very fine material in run-off. I didn't vorlauf much.
Batch sparge completed. Successful raise to boil temp with no leaks
Really anxious during boil as boiler seemed to make different noises than before, kept checking all the time but seems OK.
Prepare aromatics. Coriander & orange zest at last 15mins. Camomile for last 5 mins.
Finally 12 hours after starting mash pour into the FV!
Boiler smells amazing and wort tastes good too
25L at 1046 in FV
** Edited with links to other post about fix
