Wen's Lunch (Patersbier) AG BIAB #8

[wolfenrook]

I've not actually started the brew day yet (other than putting the RO filter on...), but it's kinda early in the morning yet...

Anyway, based on the Greg Hughe's Paterspier recipe, modified for BIAB, and named after a Terry Pratchett character from the Discworld books, Wen The Eternally Surprised who in the books founded the History Monks. So, given Patersbier's history as a nutritious beer consumed by monks whilst brewing Abbey beers, the name Wen's Lunch seems fitting.

I'm aiming for 21 litres into FV, but would mention that I am working off rather high efficiency (because that's what I tend to get) so if you want to do this yourself please do adjust quantities to suit your own efficiency.

Total liqour 29.5 litres (25 litres RO filters, 4.5 litres treated tap water, my tap water has very high bicarbonates and this is a very pale beer). Mashing for 90 minutes at 65 degrees C with 24.5 litres, Mash out at 76 degrees C (raise over 7 minutes, hold for 10) as found this really boosts efficiency, rinse my grist with 5 litres at 76 degrees C. This is my regular process, and gives me really high efficiency well over 80% usually.

Grain

4kg Dingemans Belgian Pilsen Malt 2.7 EBC

Then on to a 90 minute boil:-

Saaz 3.5 % AA Whole Hops 34.6g @ 90 minutes
Hallertauer Mittelfruh 3% AA Whole Hops 16.1g @ 10 minutes
Protofloc 1/2 tablet @10 minutes

Target IBUs (Tinseth) 16.4

Target OG 1.046

Yeast I'll be testing out the CML Belgian Ale strain for the first time. It's supposed to give off fruity & banana esters, so odds are my wife isn't going to want to drink this one....

[wolfenrook]

The grain is mashing (just did the first 20 minute stir), the hops are weighed. My favourite part of brewing, chilling out whilst the enzymes do their thing. Smells delicious, quite a lot of foam though so I am going to hazard this one is going to produce a fair bit of protein break during the boil and cool. Think I might mix up some more Brupaks Anti-Foam in my sprayer.... lol

[sbond10]

I fermented my cml belgian yeast at 22c the other week and i tried some yesterday before crash chilling deffo lots of esters in there almost wheat beer like

[wolfenrook]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I am expecting, hence my prediction that my wife won't like it. lol

Anyway, update:-

Reached a nice rolling boil, and the Saaz have gone in, smells lovely.

Had to dilute a bit as overshot pre-boil target quite a lot (1.041, wanted 1.038), so I have 31 litres in the boiler. This is supposed to be session-able, and there is nothing session-able about a 5.5% ABV beer.... lol Given how close this is to the rim, and how much foam (as predicted) it produced, I kinda had to use some anti-foam. I tried stirring the foam back in but it was having none of it and threatening to climb up and out.

Got a nice rinse/sparge going this time around too (probably the reason my efficiency overshot...) using an SS colander on the rim of the pan to sprinkle the sparge water in. Then gave it a good stir, dunk and swish, then recirculated the liquor a few times. Sparge SG went from 1.023 to 1.025 over the coarse of using this method....

Good mash too, got an SG of 1.043 from that. Was a bit worried at one point about my volumes, but managed to recover a lot from the grain after sparging.

[wolfenrook]

Brew day finished, finally. Boiler is just soaking with percarbonate now.

The usual thick layer of hops and trub in the boiler.

Final OG was 1.047, 23 litres into FV. Nice golden coloured wort.

[Manngold]

Looks exactly the same as when I did this twk years ago!

[sbond10]

What temp you gonna ferment at ?

[wolfenrook]

23 degrees, so should have quite a lot of esters. lol

[sbond10]

Yep it deffo will mine was 22 degrees but the probe fell off during peak ferment so rose to 24. Your recipe look interesting and i have all them hops in looks i may be brewing something similiar soon

[wolfenrook]

It's the one by Greg Hughes, from his book Home Brew Beer. I just tweaked it in BIABacus to get the right quantities etc for my equipment. He also notes the option to use Saaz for both hop additions for a more floral tasting beer. If this one is nice I may give that a try too (I bought 2 packs of Saaz so I could, plus Saaz is just a good hop to keep in stock I reckon).

Next brew I have to decide whether to brew a mild, an ordinary bitter or another Saison. We get through a lot of Saison, but I can brew that even in hot weather. lol The bitter is probably bottom of the list for me personally...

[sbond10]

I have sazz and hallertau mitter in stock ill have a look at that book i brewed the abbey beer a few pages before

[wolfenrook]

This is the 2nd one I've done from this book, the other I brewed a modified Summer Ale, hopped with Citra and Cascade rather than Progress and EKG.

Most of my brews though have been my own recipes to be honest, as I really enjoy the process of recipe building. Always good though the first time you brew a new style to use a set recipe, that way I'm familiar with how the style should roughly taste etc.

Just been talking to my wife, and probably going to try brewing another Patersbier at some point, but with Safbrew T58. That's supposed to be peppery/spicey rather than fruity/banana, so she'd be able to drink it. lol

[sbond10]

Ive also just done the summer ale with challenger ekg and styrian goldings

[Laripu]

Final OG was 1.047, 23 litres into FV. Nice golden coloured wort.

Beautiful colour.
Looks very much like a small batch of pineapple melomel I siphoned yesterday, which got its colour from ... well, you can figure that out.

One thing I love about brewing is that you always have expectations of something good to come. That's not trivial.

[wolfenrook]

Do I see a fellow mead maker?