Blanches de St. Oswald Belgian Wit 25-01-12 (+ pics)

[leedsbrew]

Just mashing in on the following

Blanches de St. Oswald II

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 4.9% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 80% (Turned out to be 87.5%)
Bitterness: 18IBU
Colour: 3.2SRM


Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
German Pilsner Malt 2.232 kg 43.0 % 1.0 In Mash/Steeped
UK un-malted Wheat 2.029 kg 39.1 % 1.4 In Mash/Steeped
UK Oat Malt 0.507 kg 9.8 % 0.4 In Mash/Steeped
German Spelt Malt 0.261 kg 5.0 % 0.2 In Mash/Steeped
German Sauer(Acid) Malt 0.105 kg 2.0 % 0.1 In Mash/Steeped
German Melanoidin Malt 0.052 kg 1.0 % 0.5 In Mash/Steeped


Hops
Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
German Hallertauer Hersbrucker 6.0 % 29 g 18.2 Loose Whole Hops 60 Min From End


Other Ingredients
Ingredient Amount When
Orange Peel, Sweet 45 g In Boil
Coriander Seed 11 g In Boil
Camomile 4 g In Boil


Yeast
White Labs WLP410-Belgian Wit II

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name: Stepped Infusion (35-50-65C/95-122-149F) w/Mash Out

+ Cereal mash for the un-malted wheat!


My last attempt with a dry yeast and wheat malt just didn't hit the mark so I'm going the whole hog and using un-malted wheat, step mash and cereal mash with WLP410 to try and get that very belgian wit, soft, creamy, spicy beer that I love!

I'm going to try and take a few pics if I have enough hands free, but as I don't have a big enough pan to cereal mash all the wheat at the same time I'm going to do two x 1kg cereal mashes and use each one as the infusion to step up the main mash! Probably going to be APITA but if it gets the results I'm after then so be it!


LB

[leedsbrew]

German Pilsner


I love the smell of this Weyermann pilsner. It smells so sweet and malty!


Other grains, inc a small % of melanoidin for just a touch of maltiness, some acidulated malt for a touch of lactic bite, and some oat malt for creamy oily mouthfeel!


Raw, un-malted wheat


Boiling the 1st cereal mash


Main mash spot on the infusion step after 1st cereal mash added! Nice!

[Spud395]

Nice idea on steping up the mash temps:)

[leedsbrew]

thanks! Seemed to make sense!

[leedsbrew]

cereal mashes all done! just sorting out a quick infusion step as the last cereal mash didn't bring the main mash all the way up to 65. I'm going to leave the whole mash at 65 for another hour just to make sure conversion is done.

Cheers


LB

[Lugsy]

Nice one LB

I do like a nice complicated mash, think I'll have to try cereal mashing soon when I've got a full day free for brewing

How was the rest of your day?

[leedsbrew]

Cheers Lugs! It was a marathon that's for sure! I reckon it was worth it though! The 1st cereal mash got the main mash temp up to 50 no bother, but the second struggled to get up to 65. I F'ed around with infusions and then left it to mash for 1.5 hrs. Turns out the mix of stepped mash and cereal mash was REALLY good for the mash efficiency! Managed 87.5% so not bad considering the raw un-malted wheat! result

[leedsbrew]

Got to the boil!


aromatics


smashed to get the oils out!


camomile going in! 4g




1.050 OG. Had to liquor back at the start of the boil as my PBG was 1.047 instead of 1.041


WLP410 starter. 1L of wort but it's the second 1L so it's technically 2L worth of yeast




It sticks to the bottom like glue!


Clearish going into the FV considering there was no protafloc in the boil!


not bad break as well considering




Even the starter wort tasted nice with this yeast! VERY belgian


Going


24L @ 1.050 result!

[bellebouche]

Interesting looking recipe and good pics! Excellent reportage

[WishboneBrewery]

Looks great, can I have a bottle of this please... pretty please I'll be sure to copy some of your recipe amounts when i get round to using my Wit yeast.
Sent you an email with a tentative idea, probably a stupid time to think about the US hop shortage!

[Spud395]

Like the pics LB, I see you have one of those goddamn bendy spoons as well

[jmc]

Great post and pics.

I love Belgian wit so I'll probably try something similar
soon.
Where did you get the camomile?

[leedsbrew]

Healthy krausen this morning! Air lock is chugging away!

Cheers for the comments chaps!

Ade, no worries I'll keep on aside for you! Got a few for you now! The 'little' beer from Titan is tasting really good!

JMC - it's twinings camomile tea bags. 100% camomile flowers. 1g per bag. Got them from morrisons.




Cheers

LB

[jmc]

Thanks LB

I was looking into getting some camomile after seeing them suggested as an addition with wheat beers in Radical Brewing

Camomile tea bags much cheaper than other sources on ebay.
Tesco have them on offer at the moment!
Cheers

[leedsbrew]

Did you manage to get any JMC?

This beer is at FG now I think, although it still has a good inch of krausen on top! I'm going to leave it a couple more days to get stable SG readings then chill it and bottle next week!

I had a taste of the hydrometer sample yesterday! OMG this is a good beer! everything I wanted. Nice thick mouthfeel which is going to be great with carbonation. Very complex flavour. Slightly tart with citrus and subtle spice coming through. The yeast flavour is fantastic as well. I think I'll be getting another one on as this won't last long!