First all grain wheat beer 02/06/2007 (several pics)

[retourrbx]

Wheat Beer

Ingredients:

2.5kg Wheat malt
2.0kg Pale malt
100g Flaked oats
38g Goldings (60mins)
20g Saaz (15)
4g coriander (15)
Irish moss
Brupaks Wheat Yeast (dried)



Boiler from ebay, tap from B&Q



3-tier setup (coleman mashtun off t'internet)



Filter in mashtun - same as in boiler (splatter guard from Wilkos)



19L of 72 deg C went in after grains went down to 65



Stayed at 65 for duration of mash - very pleasing!



No insulation in lid so the duvet was a help



First runnings of wort - collected 13L






Measured SG - 1.054 - sparged with 10L at 76 deg C - collected further 9L mixed this to other - SG of 1.041 (at 22L)



Boiled 22L with lid on - hot break



Added bittering hops had lid half on for rest of boil. Hydrated yeast with some wort - vigorous stuff!



Rolling boil



15 minute ingredients



Sanitise planispiral wort chiller



Take outside and chill from 90 deg C to 25 deg C in 10 mins



Pour wort into fermenting vessel - some oxygenation of wort



Aquarium pump for 15 mins provides more oxygenation



Blow off tube and aquarium heater set to 22 deg C



At the end of it all I collected 17.5 L at 1.046 which is pretty much what I was looking for and also learnt a fair bit about the equipment I have used. We'll wait and see now how the finished product is... fingers crossed...

[Garth]

First AG, well done retourrbx, great clear pictures too,

is that a Strat in the last pic?

[retourrbx]

Tokai Strat copy - really nice for a copy

[roger the dog]

If this brew turns out anything like as good as the pictures it's going to be great ! Some of the best I've seen here retourrbx - top work

[retourrbx]

Thanking you - could anyone tell me how to calculate the efficiency of the mash please?

[Frothy]

Cracking stuff - looks like you've got it sussed. I've only made one wheat beer myself but I was recommended 1oz of coriander at 15minutes, I have seen recipies that say 3g but from the taste of the beer 1oz is good.

Frothy

[retourrbx]

Cheers DaaB - that's fine - I'll check the pH next time round to try and improve on that - any other suggestions to improving efficiency would be welcome... I know it's all about the taste but efficiency is good...

[iowalad]

Great pics - it amazes me how orderly and well organized everyone is. My brewing looks like a hurricane blew into town.

[Horden Hillbilly]

Top class job there retourrbx, love the pics as well.

[SteveD]

Nice job, nice pics....except it's disconcerting! Too tidy. No chaos visible, like an Ad agency's concept of a brew day!

That Chiller is the Biz

[Garth]

btw, retourrbx, I forgot to say, you can improve the insulation (or add if it's got none) in the lid by drilling a few holes in the underside and squirting expanding foam in, you may have to do it a few times to fill the lid and it may slightly mis-shape the lid but it will still fit,

I did this but still use the 'ole duvet trick also

[PGSteamer]

Very nice pics and a very nice kitchen too

I do like your planispiral wort chiller. Never seen one before but it looks to cool the wort very quickly. How long a length of copper tubing is it made from? And from which ends do you have the water going in and coming out?

[retourrbx]

I know what you mean about the tidiness... not sure how that happened to be honest...

with regards to the foam - considered that but was too thrifty to buy it - I must look in Wilkos see if they have any...

Would the copper manifold make any difference - although it collects from a bigger area, all the wort that is collected is in liquid form so it shoudn't make too much difference. The mash was stirred after the sparge water was added, we'll see what happens next time. I'll look into fly sparging as well - what efficiencies are people getting with fly?

Thanks - the water enters in the middle and comes out at the edge - can't see that making any difference though as it is all on one level. The copper pipe was 10 metres I think by 10mm - size wise it worked out perfectly for my boiler.

I would like a hopback but am happy enough with the immersion chiller at present.

[tubby_shaw]

Thanking you - could anyone tell me how to calculate the efficiency of the mash please?

See subtitle 'Potential Extract'

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/recipe_formulation.htm

The figure for oats is 279, same for wheat malt

I come up with 61% ish

Don't get hung up on the efficiency with wheat beer, for some reason wheat beers always seem to have a lower efficiency than all barley malt beers.
61% is very good for your first grain beer ( especially as it's a wheat beer ) Congratulations
Any body want to hazard a guess to why wheat beers give a lower efficiency ?

[SteveD]

Using a single narrow filter as per your design would require all the wort across the bottom of the tun to converge at that point. By using a manifold you are collecting wort from across the whole of the bottom of the tun.

Yesterday with fly sparging and sparging slowly I got an efficiency of 90% but normally it's 80-85%.

The narrow filter will allow wort at the sides at the bottom to stay put because the flow rate will be low there, as wort coming down straight through the middle will come through faster and 'take priority' through the filter.

Daab - I thought you were heading in the 'low efficiency - better beer' direction?