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Monday, May 17, 2010

Nit Wit

THE PLAN:
One of my favorite beers is Victory Whirlwind, a PA brewed Belgian Witbier. I made a pretty damn good wit last summer as an extract batch, and so this year I was going to do the same thing, but decided to go all grain at the last minute. Why not?

THE RECIPE:
6# Belgian Pils
4# Weyerman Ligth Wheat Malt
1# Flaked Wheat
1 oz. Hallertau
1/2 oz. Saaz (homegrown)
1 oz Sweet Orange Peel
1 oz. Bitter Orange Peel
Zest of 1 Orange
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier, 1L starter on stir plate for ~ 36 hours.

5/16 BREWDAY:
Decided to do a double infusion mash schedule...
9.9 qts @ 132F --> 120-122 for 30 min.
8.8 qts @ 198F --> 152-154 for 30 min.
7.7 qts @ 206F --> 168F for 10 min.
Sparge w/ 1.38 gal. @ 205F --> 168F
Collected 6.5 gallons
First runnings - 11/1.044
Pre-boil - 10/1.040
Boil - 60 min, hops @ 60 (Hallertau), 10 (Saaz), orange peels @ 10
Post boil/OG - 12/1.048

6/9 PRIMARY to BOTTLE
Happy 9 months Bear! Well, Brix is down to 6/1.010 which actually exceeded my estimate by about 3 points. Nice! Smell and taste were right on, color was maybe a smidge darker than Whilrwind, but, man this will be good! Can't wait!

6/22 FIRST TASTING
I had the supreme pleasure of first trying this beer with the one and only Don Osborn when I went out to MN for a work conference. Don was gracious enough to invite me over for some homebrews, and I brought with me a few VT beers as well as some homebrews, this being one. I was a little worried that it hadn't carbonated much since I had only bottled it 6 days prior, but it poured fine, even though the head dissipated pretty quickly. It was pretty good, sweet, light, a little tang from the orange peel... still not quite where I wanted it, but will be able to tell better when I sample it with a Whirlwind and my last bottle from the one I brewed last summer.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Way back Archive

I was re-organizing my brew book (a binder full of recipes), and I found a bunch of stuff from when I started brewing. These are some recipes I tried the first time around, 2001-2008:

2001:
2/01 - IPA (kit)
7/10/01 - Wood's Edge Berry Wheat (ended up like a framboise, but w/o the belgian funk)
9/9/01 - Whirlwind clone
9/16/01 - Blueberry Ale
9/23/01 - IPA
9/30/01 - Granny Smith Cider

2002:
2/23/02 - IPA (AG)

2003:
10/5/03 - Phil & Brian's Cider
10/5/03 - Boo Berry Ale
10/17/03 - IPA (AG)

2007:
4/29/07 - Weirdo Witbier (had choc & crystal malts in it)
4/29/07 - VT Maple Cider

2008:
4/20/08 - VT Maple Cider
4/23/08 - Whirlwind clone
8/18/08 - Pumpkin Brown

I really didn't have that great of a handle on what I was doing back then. I also complicated things by jumping into all grain too soon. A lot of these batches ended in frustration, and so it was hard to keep moving forward. I worked/volunteered part time at a homebrew shop, my pay was ingredients, pretty good trade off. Another thing that I see now is that my setup had a lot of problems, and I didn't have that many resources available as I do today. But I'm glad I started then and kept my gear. Now the timing is right for me to start up again, and I'm enjoying it.