Wheat beer idea.

[Mikes15]

Might have a bash at a wheat beer, not done one for a while,,

 

Read a few posts on here & thinking of this made up recipe;

 

1.7kg MJ's Bavarian Wheat OR 1.7kg TC 'selection' Wheat beer, if I can get it.

1kg 'Wheatbrewblend' - (Dextrose & Dry Wheat Malt Extract, I expect about 80/20 or less going by the price)

500g DME, Wheat.

40g Wai iti Pellets Dry Hopped - Link to spec

MJ20 Bavarian Wheat Yeast

 

Are the fermentable amounts ok?

 

Thinking I might boil 2L of water with an orange peel for 5-10mins & strain it into the FV to dissolve the Dex / DME, as I'm not planning on a hop boil.

[ben 10]

Sounds good. Make sure there is very little pith with the orange peel.

25g of toasted coriander seeds goes well too.

[therealthing691]

Wai iti Pellets sounds good Wai iti Pellets are nice in wheat

[Mikes15]

In today,

1 orange peal, but only had 3g of coriander seeds in the cupboard so bit light on those,,,,

went to 21L SG was down to 1046-1045, prob should have stopped at 20l when it was about 1058

Hydrated the yeast at 35'c & pitched into 25'C wort, any thoughts on brewing temps?, yeast says 18-30'c so slightly vague!

I normally bump up 2-3'c every 3-4 days & was thinking of finishing at 30'c as wheat's Ive done before brew around there, sound ok?

[ben 10]

Probably don't go to 30°c.... just cos it's high.....

I assume you'd have to heat it to get it that high? I don't like the idea of heating a brew.

[Mikes15]

I use a temp controlled brew fridge with no direct contact for the heater or chill plate, maybe just 25 up to 27 in a few days then.

Ta.

[Mikes15]

Since there was quite a bit of talk of problems with Mangrove Jacks yeast mentioned here in a post by  Norris;-
(admittedly Mj44 & MJ54 mind)

"problems-rehydrating-yeast" post

Thought I share how the MJ20 Bavarian wheat yeast Ive used is going , I followed my SOP for re-hydrating of;

- Sanitize the cup & spoon which you will stir with.
- Let the yeast (which has been stored in the fridge) come up to room temp before you begin.
- Use 10mls of water (that has been boiled & cooled, not just warmed) per 1gram of yeast.
- I use 2 bowls, one large & one smaller, 35-38'C water & yeast goes into the small one which sits in the larger, filled with enough 35-38'C water to make the small bowl float, this I've found keeps the yeast - water temp from dropping so much.
- Don't stir, 1st sit for 15-20mins.
- Cover the bowl / cup with glad wrap or tin foil when its sitting to prevent wild yeast infections.
- Stir, then recover & sit for a further 15-30mins.
- Stir then slowly equalize the hydrated yeast to the wort temp by draining wort from the FV tap into the yeast slurry while stirring slowly, before pitching & stirring into the wort.

After the 1st 15 mins I had light bubbles forming in the yeast,

After the 2nd 15 mins I had some foam forming,

After just 12-18hours the FV is so alive its blowing the air lock & Ive had to refill it twice.

Packet claims 70-75% attenuation, the last brew I did was a MJ's APA craft box kit & I got 84%.

[Mikes15]

Well the MJ yeast has smashed through this brew, down to 1010 in just 5days, getting 78% attenuation, not bad for a yeast thats rated to give 70-75%,,,,

 

Oh, it tastes great by the way, even before the dry hop.

[The Captain!!]

Nice one Mike.

Nothing beats healthy yeast in a container of sugary goodness. 

Captain

[Mikes15]

Any thoughts on whether I should cold crash, I do always for ales but not sure with wheat beers?

Also been a lot of discussion on here about cold dry hopping, might give it go or at least shorten my warm hop to 1-2days.

[ben 10]

No need for cold crashing a wheat....

I always cold dry hop

[Mikes15]

Sweet, at 1010 again today,  pop the hops in now, might wrap them as there's 40G & if I'm not CCing don't want it all in the beer.

Easily the nicest tasting Wheat ive made (about 5-6 to date), be really interesting to see how it is after hopping.

[Mikes15]

24hrs into DH, just like my last brew the DH has made the SG drop a bit more, down to 1008 now, that's now 83% attenuation, BOOM!

Tastes like bananary Riesling with a slight bitter finish, out standing!

[Otto Von Blotto]

On 5/20/2018 at 12:53 PM, Mikes15 said:

went to 21L SG was down to 1046-1045, prob should have stopped at 20l when it was about 1058

Do you mean 1.048? There's no way in the world adding an extra litre would make the SG drop by 12 or 13 points.

[Mikes15]

Not much I can say, I wrote 1058 in this post the day I did it & I recall being surprised with it dropping to 1046 when I put it up to 23L Ive even written 1046 on my brewing notes.

Possible I read it wrong but Im dam sure it was in the 50's not 40's.

 

[Mikes15]

Sorry, I went 20L up to 21L in case anyone is thinking posting 20 to 23L explains it, can edit the post for some reason.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yeah, at that volume, increasing it by one litre won't affect the SG that drastically. It might drop it by 2 or 3 points, but not 12 or 13. Increasing the volume by 1 litre when you've only got 4 or 5 litres may well have that drastic of an effect though.

As for editing posts, they only allow it for a certain amount of time after it's posted. I don't know how long it is though.

[Mikes15]

Bottling tomorrow,

The Wai iti dry hop has settled in nicely, its brought the sweetness right down & added a lot more layers of citrus based flavors while leaving a banana note.

Going to prime 230g table sugar aiming for 3.6 Volumes of CO₂, the style guide on brewers friend is 3.3 - 4.5 for German wheat beer, its so smooth now I don't want to pump it up to much & end up with a fizzy beer.

 

 

 

[The Captain!!]

7 hours ago, Mikes15 said:

Bottling tomorrow,

The Wai iti dry hop has settled in nicely, its brought the sweetness right down & added a lot more layers of citrus based flavors while leaving a banana note.

Going to prime 230g table sugar aiming for 3.6 Volumes of CO₂, the style guide on brewers friend is 3.3 - 4.5 for German wheat beer, its so smooth now I don't want to pump it up to much & end up with a fizzy beer.

 

 

 

Nice, plus too much spritz and you’ll loose all that flavour.

Good choice on the carbonation 

[porschemad911]

On 5/31/2018 at 1:43 PM, Mikes15 said:

Bottling tomorrow,

The Wai iti dry hop has settled in nicely, its brought the sweetness right down & added a lot more layers of citrus based flavors while leaving a banana note.

Going to prime 230g table sugar aiming for 3.6 Volumes of CO₂, the style guide on brewers friend is 3.3 - 4.5 for German wheat beer, its so smooth now I don't want to pump it up to much & end up with a fizzy beer.

 

 

 

Hey Mike,

Wondering what bottles you using with that level of carbonation? Just wondering because if it's going into glass, they would need to be nice strong ones.

Cheers,

John

[Mikes15]

18 hours ago, porschemad911 said:

Hey Mike,

Wondering what bottles you using with that level of carbonation? Just wondering because if it's going into glass, they would need to be nice strong ones.

Cheers,

John

I did consider that,

used a mix of 1.25L pet, 500ml cider & 750ml swappa crate bottles,

The latter should be fine but the 1st 2 will be handled with care,,,

The pet's are rock solid already, might end up releasing off some pressure TBH.

Ive managed to crack the steel caps before without loosing the seals so could bleed some off.

 

Any idea what pressure / CO cider would be at?, the brew calc shows

Fruit Lambic

3.0 - 4.5 volumes

but not sure what that is!!

[porschemad911]

Lambic is a Belgian mixed culture fermentation beer, carbonated fairly high generally. Most cider is pretty fizzy too, but I'm not sure of the exact levels. Do the bottles feel fairly thick and heavy? If not I personally would not use them for this beer.

I did a saison primed for 4 vols recently, used Weihenstephaner Weissbier bottles without any issues. But they are pretty solid bottles.

Cheers, 

John

[Otto Von Blotto]

If the PET bottles are soft drink bottles they should handle it. After all, soft drinks are more highly carbonated than most beer, probably around the same level as the wheat beer.

[Mikes15]

4 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

If the PET bottles are soft drink bottles they should handle it. After all, soft drinks are more highly carbonated than most beer, probably around the same level as the wheat beer.

PET's are reused beer bottles, the ones you get in some supermarkets, not to worried about them as easy enough to bleed some pressure off, though hard to know how hard is to hard with a technical squeeze 

 

6 hours ago, porschemad911 said:

Do the bottles feel fairly thick and heavy? If not I personally would not use them for this beer.

Cheers, 

John

There not as thick as the swappa crates by any means, there either rekorderlig or orchard thieves bottles.

Info on line suggest that these are not in fact "Ciders" per say, they are in fact RTD's, or alcoholic sweet water so TBH who knows what the Vol of CO2 would be, possibly similar to soft drinks as they are equal in sugar content & gas style.

At the moment there all contained in a metal brew fridge, Ill open a PET end of this week for my "cant wait, brewers privilege" taster & if its seriously pressurized Ill see about gassing off the rest or possibly even make a bottle guard / holder out of PVC tubing to slip the glass bottles in when I'm handling those.

[Mikes15]

Given this is only a 1week brewers bonus, bloody fantastic,,,

Carbonation's just right, gassy but smooth & still has good mouth feel, PETs are hard but the caps not bulging to much & the metal caps on the glass bottles aren't popping up either.

Flavours & aroma are great, face full of Pineapple & Banana when you pick up the glass with light Orange / citrus backing up the taste.

Dont know how much of it is down to the MJ's Bavarian Wheat, or the MJ's MJ20 yeast or the Wai iti hops but the combination is outstanding, so pleased with it!!!