A weekend of brewing

[Neal]

Beer no. 1
Starting off with something dark and strong in a belgian stylee. Looking for an OG of 1.069.
Not sure what to call it yet - any suggestions?

In an overnight Mash:
2400g Vienna
2000g MO
600g Bel. aromatic
600g CaraMunich
200g Crystal
then in the 90min boil tomorrow:
700g Table sugar
35g Challenger (6.5%)
To be fermented with WhiteLabs WLP500

Mashing overnight - start temp a bit higher than usual:

All tucked up and ready for bed

More to follow as long as all goes well...

[Neal]

only lost a few degrees overnight

first runnings

[WishboneBrewery]

Looks good, how was the mash after the night, no signs of sticking or anything??

[J_P]

That's going to be a cracker Neal

[Neal]

Cheers JP -just waiting for it to finish cooling before pitching the yeast, I'm on brew 2 now
Witty Banter mk. 2 (for 23L)
2.5 kg MO
2.5 kg Flaked Wheat
mashed for 90 mins @ 65
Currently boiling with 20g Challenger

T minus 30 mins is when the spices start:
2 star anise pods
and a couple of teaspoons of coriander seed

Tminus 5 mins:
1 cinnamon stick
25g bitter orange peel

Cool and ferment with T-58, looking for an OG of about 1.050

[GARYSMIFF]

How about "Couverture de la bière belge" Belgian Blanket Beer" 3B's

[Neal]

The belgian blanket beer (thanks gary) looked superb going into the fermenter and I ended up with 20L at 1.079 , which is a bit of a monster, so I'm glad I made a 1L starter with the WLP500. The mash drained perfectly by the way, pdtnc probably helped by the fact I added aload of 3mm holes to the standard H&G manifold.

After vigorous aeration and yeast pitching:


Made some treberbrot (as per another thread) with some spent grains from the first brew:

Very tasty and the kids seemed to like it

Had a quick blast on the bike to the homebrew shop in farnborough at lunchtime and picked up some bitter orange peel for the wit. What a great day - beer and motorbikes Went with a friend to get the ingredients for the Marston's Old Empire we'll be doing on sunday. Three brewing sessions in a weekend!

As for the wit, all the spices meant it smelled amazing in the garage, a bit frothy going into the fv,cooling overnight now ready for the t-58 in the morning, volume was spot on, we'll see about the OG tomorrow

[leedsbrew]

Hi Neal

Can I ask how you aerate your wart as that looks like some good creamy head you've got going on there!

cheers


Neil

[Neal]

I used a Lidl handheld electric balloon whisk on full power for about a minute