I plan to post details of the new system I've built over the last few months, but for now here is one of the first brew days on the new equipment.
More details/info on my blog here.
In the "Brewing With Wheat" Book (Stan Hieronymus) it's suggested that Widmer Brothers can turn around their hefeweizen from grain-to-glass in 8 days (if required), since I have only just (almost) completed my new brewery build, but had promised my brew-club I'd produce a beer for the Annual Dinner, attempting a similar beer seemed like a good idea.
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Widbier
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 5.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 32.2 IBU
Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) 52.3 %
Wheat Malt, Pale (Best Malz) 38.6 %
Munich I (Weyermann) 6.8 %
Crystal (Joe White) 2.3 %
Magnum (11) (60 min) 16.6 IBU
Columbus (HG 12) (60 min) 10.2 IBU
Cascade (11) (15 min) (0.68g/L) 3.0 IBU
Cascade (09) (5 min) (0.68g/L) 2.4 IBU
Cascade (HG 12) (0 min, hop-back) (0.68g/L)
Whirlfloc (Boil 15.0) (0.045g/L)
Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) (0.045g/L)
Lactic Acid (Mash 60.0 min) (0.094ml/L)
Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) (0.18g/L)
Calcium Sulfate (Mash 60.0 min) (0.27g/L)
Lactic Acid (Sparge) (0.0125 ml/L)
Mash In (3.4L/kg) 49.0 C 5 min
Maltase Rest 64.0 C 60 min
Dextrinization Rest 73.0 C 15 min
Mash Out 78.0 C 10 min
Wyeast Greenbelt (Starter) (9.09billion cells/L)
Ferment @ 20 C.
(Notes: Local water is very soft (almost the same as distilled/RO) hence the salt additions, 'HG' hops are 'home grown' and I suspect add a little of their own unique terroir.)
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The book and brewer's website have conflicting information about the beer-recipe, so I went with an emulation of what was on the website. The malt-bill was a guess at what they use, and the hops also based on what I had in the fridge, but the main difference was (since I had a starter made and sitting in the fridge) I used Greenbelt yeast and not 'American Wheat' yeast aka 'German Alt' yeast (Wy1010).
While I plan to make a post about my new set-up when it's finished, here are a few pics/videos from the Widbier brewday:
Crushing grain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9jyTKGRy2g
(No Idea if I can embed videos here?)
300g rice-hulls added to improve mash-filtering:
Mash & wort return at mash-in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDU8t2917Iw
Mash tun, HERMS and (little-brown-solar) pump:
(As you can tell a brew-stand is still on the 'to do' list and is one of the last things needed to finish my new brewery build, but the milk-crates work, and I needed to brew some beer).
After 75mins recirculated mash, wort was nice and clear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVYtMfKgOtU
A decent amount of hops (for a wheat beer):
(next time I think I'll go bigger again to emulate Mad Brewers Hoppy Hefe - a one-off seasonal that I doubt ever made it to the UK)
Into the kettle it was a lovely golden colour:
After fermenting for 9 days at 20C I took a sample directly from the fermentor and force-carbed a couple of bottles. With the yeast still in suspension the beer was cloudy, but had a wonderful fresh wheat-grain/hop/yeast aroma and flavour. Citrus hops, the wheat malt and fruit-salad from the yeast all combining to make a very interesting, tasty and refreshing beer - even the BJCP-certified judges at the club-night seemed to enjoy the beer. 12 days after being brewed the beer was presented at the brew-club's annual dinner and was generally received well - serving it with a wedge of lemon was something that was enjoyed by some, but not others. While the beer was still 'good', I should not have left the beer cold-chill for 2 days since it would have been better with the yeast still in suspension.
(Unfortunately I left the camera at the club night, the availability of more than a dozen beer's on tap didn't help, so I'll post a picture of the beer when I get the camera back).
