Kitty Witty Recipe on BeerTools.com & First time all-gra

Brewing processes and methods. How to brew using extract, partial or all-grain. Tips and tricks.

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akira7799
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Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:02 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (school) Waterbury, CT (home)
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Kitty Witty Recipe on BeerTools.com & First time all-gra

Post by akira7799 »

Hey Everyone,

I am new to the forum and to BeerTools.com in general. I found these sites looking for an all-grain Hoegaarden clone recipe. The recipe I found seems great. It calls for

Category - Belgian and French Ale
Subcategory - Witbier
Recipe Type - All Grain
Batch Size - 5.5 gal.
Volume Boiled - 6.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency - 70 %
Total Grain/Extract - 10.00 lbs.
Total Hops - 2.5 oz.
Calories (12 fl. oz.) - 176.9
Cost to Brew - $25.35 (USD)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.) - $0.43 (USD)

- 5.25 lbs. Belgian Pils
- 0.25 lbs. Oats Flaked
- 4.5 lbs. Wheat Flaked
- 1 oz. Hallertau (Pellets, 2.6 %AA) boiled 60 min.
- 1 oz. Hallertau (Pellets, 2.6 %AA) boiled 27 min.
- 0.5 oz. Hallertau (Pellets, 2.6 %AA) boiled 9 min.
- 1 ounces Crushed coriander pods
- 1 ounces Bitter orange peel
- Yeast : White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale info
boiled for 60, 27, an d 9 minutes

So, now I have a list of ingredients off which to work, but unfortuantely for myself, have no idea when to add the coriander or bitter orange peel. I'm assuming that they are both flavors, they would be added with the flavoring hops with 27 minutes left in the boil.

Please give me some other guidance if you have it regarding this ingredient list.

Now I have some questions regarding my first all-grain mash.

1. Is there a sticky post for preparing a mash?
2. Are there any good resources towards which you can guide me?
3. What would be the easiest way to prepare this mash for boil?

Thanks for your help everyone,
Dave
BillyBock
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Post by BillyBock »

Dave: welcome to AG brewing! I've been at it for 5 years now and love every minute of it. I can't help you on your question of the bitter orange peel and coriander. The recipe looks yummy though.

On your other questions:
1) I don't believe there's a sticky post yet (good idea). But the short version for a simple single infusion mash is this: plan on 1.25 qts of water per pound of grain; heat your water to about 160F to 165F; add your grains slowly to the water and stir getting all the doughballs wet; your mash should settle in around 150F; insulate your mash vessel, and let it sit for 60 minutes until conversion is done; now you're ready to sparge and get the malt sugars out of it and this will depend on your equipment setup, see note #2.

2) http://www.howtobrew.com is a good on-line reference. It also includes chapters on equipment construction, ie. mash-lauter tuns, etc.

3. You don't want to boil your mash (unless your doing an advanced mashing technique called 'decoction'--but then even this only boils a portion of the mash). As you'll read from howtobrew.com, once you get your sparge completed and you've rinsed the sugars from the mash into your boil kettle then you're ready to boil it. Beware of the hot break, and don't fill your boil kettle too much or you'll get a sticky boil over--not fun.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it turns out.

v/r
Bill
akira7799
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:02 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (school) Waterbury, CT (home)
Contact:

Post by akira7799 »

Bill,

Thanks so much for your quick reply and warm welcome. Hopefully I can grow into a strong enough all-grain homebrewer that someday I can help people in my current position.

A couple questions yet again.

1. I will have 10 pounds of grain. 10 pounds of grain will require 12.5 quarts (little more than 3 gals) for the mash. I would then need 1.5 times as much water for the sparge, which would be 18.75 quarts (a bit more than 4.5 gals). 3 gals plus 4.5 gals = 7.5 gals. The recipe calls for a mash of 6.5 gals to be boiled. Does that additional water get absorbed by the mashed grains?

2. I know that you said to perform a single temperature infusion mash at about 160 to 165F, but would multiple temperature infusions benefit a Belgian Witbiers?

3. In chapter 17.0 of How to Brew, Jon Palmer says
For a thicker mash, or a mash composed of more than 25% of wheat or oats, a mashout may be needed to prevent a Set Mash/Stuck Sparge. This is when the grain bed plugs up and no liquid will flow through it.
He then goes on to explain mashout. I'm having a fairly difficult time understanding what he is talking about. Can someone else explain it differently?

4. I see that mash-lauter tuns are fairly expensive on their own, are there solid plans that are sold anywhere? Even better, are there solid plans that free?

Thanks again,
Dave
BillyBock
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Posts: 561
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2000 11:37 am
Location: Ohio

Post by BillyBock »

Dave:

1) You're correct the extra gallon is absorbed by the grains and is lost. So your mash by itself will contribute roughly 2 gals, with the other 4.5 gals from the sparge filtering through, giving you 6.5 gals collected in the boil kettle. Grain absorption is roughly 12% (in gals) of the weight of the grain (in lbs). So 10 lbs of grain will absorb about 1.2 gals of water.

2) When you add grain to hot water, it will absorb some of the heat and the temperature will drop. Therefore, heat your mash water to roughly 12 to 15F higher than your target mash temperature. There are exact equations to figure this out, but this is a rule of thumb assuming you don't have an insulated vessel with it's own thermal mass to account for. For your first go around with AG, I think it's in your best interests to stick with a single temperature infusion...get to know your system and how it reacts. I've made plenty wheat beers with single temperature infusions. You can do a multi-temperature infusion, but you'd have to know what method you were going to use to add heat (direct heat, boiling water infusions, etc.), and you need to know the thermal mass of your mash tun. Otherwise, boiling water infusions will be a painful trial-and-error session until you get it right.

3. A set mash, or stuck mash, is not fun. That's when it gets so gummy that the wort sugars and water don't flow during the sparge. In a mash of 100% barley, the barley husks act as a natural filter bed. But when you use good portions of wheat or oats you're more prone to stuck mashes because wheat doesn't have husks and oats are high in beta-glucans (the stuff that makes oatmeal thick). The trick is to use rice hulls--about 1/4 pound for 5 gal batch should do it. Rice hulls are flavor neutral and help add husk material to help set your filter bed and prevent the dreaded stuck mash.

A mashout is entirely different--it's essentially another temperature rest. After your grains have gone through conversion (150F) you can perform a mashout (170F). The mashout stops enzymatic activity so no further conversion occurs, and since the temperature is higher it causes the sugars to be more fluid so they flow easier. If you're after repeatability in your beers you'll definitely want to do a mashout, but they're not entirely necessary. It's perfectly reasonable to do a single temperature infusion and then start sparging. I did this for the longest time because I didn't have the ability to mashout effectively or easily. For the reasons I listed in #2, you might want to consider not doing a mashout yet.

4. Actually, you can make your own mash tun for less than $50. There are plenty of homebrewers on the internet detailing their prized mash tuns. I made my first one out of a 5 gal Gott cooler and a Phil's False Bottom. Here's two links to get you started.
http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/
http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/in ... 9195755857
http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/in ... first-mash

Mashing sounds harder than it actually is. Once you get into it you'll see how simple it is. Just think through the process before you start, make yourself a checklist so you don't forget anything, and just do it and have fun. You're going to make mistakes--it happens to all of us. Just have fun with it and learn from it and the next batch will go even smoother.

v/r
Bill

Brew On!
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