AG#52 - Half Wit

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EoinMag

Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by EoinMag » Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:09 am

pdtnc wrote:Fermenting at 18c on the Garage Floor, yeast giving off loads of sulphurous aromas and flavours. Orange has died down thankfully.
I am really loving the paleness of this beer though, hope it keeps its cloudiness :)

When I worked in the pubs in Germany the weizen would drop clear in the bottle sometimes, just pour the beer until almost empty and then swish the yeast around and horse it into the glass. If you hold back on the yeast for a beer that's supposed to have it the German considers himself short-changed :)
So basically it must not remain cloudy all the time rousing the yeast in the bottle will bring the cloudiness back.

I'm pretty sure a wit left to stand for long enough will clear also. I'd be dubious about adding flour if you really want to brew it true to style, even that will clear eventually too.

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Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by WishboneBrewery » Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:16 am

@SimpleOne
well in less than 24 hours in the bottle the top 20mm is crystal clear, I think its mostly yeast in suspension.

@EoinMag
I regularly do a swirl with the dregs before adding my Wheat Beers to my glass :)

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Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by simple one » Fri Apr 22, 2011 11:04 am

EoinMag wrote:I'm pretty sure a wit left to stand for long enough will clear also. I'd be dubious about adding flour if you really want to brew it true to style, even that will clear eventually too.
I think a starch haze is brewing to style on a Belgian wheat/wit beer. I don't think starch haze drops out too readily either. In fact isn't a clear wit (or it might be a German Wheat) called a Krystal due to lack of haze? And how many clear hoegaardens have you ever had?
The problem is that as home brewers we are to conscientiousness to make a hazy beer. So adding it in after the mash is probably the easiest way to go. Especially if you have low alkalinity water.
I have found the wit beers I have brewed which were clear were missing something. I think the haze adds some flavour, or maybe body. But then it might be that I'm tasting with my eyes.

And as for all that stuff about yeast in the beer... am I the only one that finds it produces chronic wind in those concentrations?

Anyway looks like a nice day for a cheeky tester.

EoinMag

Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by EoinMag » Fri Apr 22, 2011 11:17 am

simple one wrote:
EoinMag wrote:I'm pretty sure a wit left to stand for long enough will clear also. I'd be dubious about adding flour if you really want to brew it true to style, even that will clear eventually too.
I think a starch haze is brewing to style on a Belgian wheat/wit beer. I don't think starch haze drops out too readily either. In fact isn't a clear wit (or it might be a German Wheat) called a Krystal due to lack of haze? And how many clear hoegaardens have you ever had?
The problem is that as home brewers we are to conscientiousness to make a hazy beer. So adding it in after the mash is probably the easiest way to go. Especially if you have low alkalinity water.
I have found the wit beers I have brewed which were clear were missing something. I think the haze adds some flavour, or maybe body. But then it might be that I'm tasting with my eyes.

And as for all that stuff about yeast in the beer... am I the only one that finds it produces chronic wind in those concentrations?

Anyway looks like a nice day for a cheeky tester.
Given time starch haze will also drop clear. I think the large quantity of yeast in these beer styles is completely appropriate and to style, now the parpy issue is another one, but it is true to style.
There is a clear Weizen, which is called a Krystal, which is a very much less popular style of beer in Germany, but they are there, generally they throw a slice of lemon into them.
I've never had a clear Hoegaarden, but I think it would drop given enough time, and I'm not sure Inbev are really brewing that completely to style, they might well be putting in some artificial starches such as the said spoon of flour at boil time, by artificial I mean not there from the straight brew, rather than man made. As said as far as I'm concerned and from my experience the haze is as much about yeast as anything else.
That flour haze is going to be purely aesthetic also, the real character and more importantly the flavour in the cloudiness comes from the flavour of the yeast.

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Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by simple one » Fri Apr 22, 2011 12:46 pm

Well I think we'll have to agree to disagree.
Belgian wits are cloudy. All the Wits I have had, have starch hazes, not yeast in solution (not to say that I have tried every wit beer out there).
Having no haze would be seen as a fault in a competition for this style. To the point that you can even buy a haze forming additive from wyeast.
Why do you say that Hoegaarden is not being brewed true to style as a Wit? It looks like a Wit, it tastes like a Wit. Unless you are head brewer and know better.... then it is a Wit.

EoinMag

Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by EoinMag » Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:24 pm

simple one wrote:Well I think we'll have to agree to disagree.
Belgian wits are cloudy. All the Wits I have had, have starch hazes, not yeast in solution (not to say that I have tried every wit beer out there).
Having no haze would be seen as a fault in a competition for this style. To the point that you can even buy a haze forming additive from wyeast.
Why do you say that Hoegaarden is not being brewed true to style as a Wit? It looks like a Wit, it tastes like a Wit. Unless you are head brewer and know better.... then it is a Wit.
Don't get me wrong, but I do know that a lot of people complain about Hoegaarden and the other Inbev brews not being a patch on their pre-Inbev incarnations, so I reckon that Inbev are probably using such a haze forming additive, which really is not true to style and is cheating in my opinion. I may be wrong but I doubt they are using a turbid mash for their wits as was originally used to produce the haze and are cutting corners, all the big breweries do it.

Of course I don't know this, it surely is a wit, but I don't think they will have retained all of it's autheticity and trad methods due to commercial considerations.

http://www.brewingtechniques.com/librar ... osher.html

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Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by simple one » Fri Apr 22, 2011 2:58 pm

No, totally agree with you. Anything to cut costs. But that runs through the industry, and not just InBev. They seem to come in for a lot of stick.... not all of there brews are bad. Plus there is loads of stuff that can be considered cheating... CRS? Spices? Finings? Filtering? Sugar?

Sorry PDTNC for going so far off topic.

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Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by WishboneBrewery » Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:32 pm

Just having a early taster bottle, the 330ml had dropped almost crystal clear.
Taste-wise, sort of sweet-light-belgian nothing in-your-face the Orange & Coriander are obviously in there but seem lost on me at the moment.
Nice carbonation, nothing too fizzy just a nice tongue tingle.

Overall, very happy with this, I hope it ages well. I shall have to put a bottle in the fridge and see how a cold one tastes on a hot day :)

leedsbrew

Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by leedsbrew » Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:13 pm

pdtnc wrote:Just having a early taster bottle, the 330ml had dropped almost crystal clear.
Taste-wise, sort of sweet-light-belgian nothing in-your-face the Orange & Coriander are obviously in there but seem lost on me at the moment.
Nice carbonation, nothing too fizzy just a nice tongue tingle.

Overall, very happy with this, I hope it ages well. I shall have to put a bottle in the fridge and see how a cold one tastes on a hot day :)

In a word, awesome. It was the 1st of my homebrew I had when I got back from the states! I wanted something that did not have cascade hops in! lol

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Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by WishboneBrewery » Sun May 08, 2011 4:01 pm

Bottles have dropped pretty clear!
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AG#52 - Half Wit by pdtnc, on Flickr

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Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by WishboneBrewery » Tue May 10, 2011 6:51 pm

Another taster later, chilled in the fridge for a few days. I like this but…
If I was to use this yeast again I would ignore advice to ferment cool, I’d let it go for it at a minimum of 20c and let it ferment the heck out of it, this should gas-off the sulphurous stuff with the C02. I think my cool 18c ferment has made it retain the odours, I’d also cut out any Sulphates in the liquor treatment sticking to Calcium Chloride which would have the added bonus of some perceived mouth-feel.
Oh, I will use this yeast again as I think I can get better out of it.

llannige

Re: AG#52 - Half Wit

Post by llannige » Wed May 11, 2011 5:46 am

Looking good,I can almost taste it. =D>

Will also use the yeast again. Was happy with it the one time I used it. 8)

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