Growling Weisse Brewday 3/7/2011

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Today I decided to have a go at my first ever Weisse, I had been waiting until I got my new False Bottom for my Mash Tun as I didn't really want a stuck Mash. I am also going to be underletting today for the first time as I have some longer silicon hose which is long enough, cheers Vossy.

Heres the recipe, nice and simple, which has been tweaked following comments in the recipe thread.

Growling Weisse

Brew Length: 50 Litres
Original Gravity (OG): 1.051 (°P): 12.6
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 5.01 %
Colour (SRM): 5.0 (EBC): 9.9
Bitterness (IBU): 16.6 (Average)

5Kg Maris Otter Malt
5Kg Wheat Malt
750g Munich I

80g Tettnanger (4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)

The brewery is all set up ready to go, Mash Tun preheated with boiling water.



The new false bottom is in place ready for action



The obligatory grain shot



The grains now in the Mash Tun awaiting the arrival of some Liquor



The underletting in progress, adding 28 Litres of Liquor to the grain.



That was easy, a very quick stir and all mashed in nicely with no lumps. I'll be underletting in future, that was so much easier than all that stirring.



Not a bad pH either I make that about 5.5



I'll be back later once the Mash is over to update some more, and have some more piccies.

[WishboneBrewery]

Are you going to Copper Fine this? I found without Protafloc etc my bottles were like mud for ages!

[Beer O'Clock]

By way of definition: a wheat beer cannot be called a Weisse unless it has at least 50% wheat


<<pedant off>>

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Hi, yes I will be copper fining this with Protafloc, I want to get this drinkable reasonably soon.

I didn't know it had to be more than 50% wheat to be a Weisse, or well never mind, I didn't have any more Wheat so this will have to do for now.

The boil is now underway, I'll be along with some more pics shortly.

[GrowlingDogBeer]

The mash complete, recirculation some of the wort until it runs clear.

The false bottom has done a great job, not a single grain has come though.



Then onto the sparge, gravity feeding the Sparge Arm, and pumping the wort into the boiler.



Hops in and the boil underway.

[simple one]

Looking good, nice setup.

[GrowlingDogBeer]

All done, a quick test, I make it 1.052 or thereabouts, so thats good as it's just above target.



Running off into the fermenters then they will be tucked away in their fermenting fridges at 20C for a week or so.

[GARYSMIFF]

Drinking that in 10 days mate, what yeast did you use or did I miss it.

NB: love the spanner rack

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Yes, I'm hoping to have this one drinkable pretty soon.

I used Safbrew WB-06, I'm not doing very well with Liquid yeasts yet, the last one I tried to make a starter with went all sour on me.

I have just got some nice borosilicate flasks though so that should make sterilising a bit easier.

My main spanners all live in a big toolbox, but thats not practical when you need one in a hurry, so I have 3 adjustables up there plus the spanner that fits the corny outposts, and the one that fits the JG fittings that screw onto the disconnects.

[GARYSMIFF]

same here buddy
Have 2 Adjustable Spanners for the same reason, strange thay have my name on them http://www.kingdicktools.co.uk/

so a stirplate your next build I made mine out of a Cigar box Computer fan and Hard drive magnets and a maplin kit to regulate the fan speedhttp://brewiki.org/StirPlate#What_you_will_need

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I got a stir plate in the deal with the job lot of flasks.
Proper one, right posh, shiny too.
bargain central

[Fallen]

Steve

What temp was your strike water for the underletting? Did you hit your target mash temp?

Any advice for a virgin underletter

Cheers

Paul

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I preheated the Mash Tun, maybe got it a little too warm this time.

My Strike temp was 72C and I ended up at with a Mash Temp of 68C, which was a little higher than I had anticipated but OK.

I think a slightly lower Strike Temp for next time and I should be spot on.

The only advice I would have is just go for it as it's so much easier.

[Fallen]

It does sound like a much easier method.

How did you pre-heat the mash tun?

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I put about 10 Litres of Hot Water in the boiler.

The first thing I do on the morning of a Brew day is flush through the brewery to check it's all clean.

So I put about 10 Litres of water into the HLT, it goes on hot direct from the Combi boiler, I run that off into the Mash Tun, then pump it from the Tun into the Copper.

I then heat it up to boiling in the copper and run back it out into the Mash Tun, while boiling, to clean the out pipe of the boiler.

I then leave this in the Mash tun to heat it up while I am prepping everthing ready for the brew.