Newbie question - planning my second batch

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Postby afromaiko » Wednesday Dec 20, 2006 9:50 am

I'm also not sure whether I'll rack to secondary yet. I have a few other brews lined up I want to make during my Christmas holidays. Also, since this style is traditionally cloudy it probably doesn't really need to clarify anyway. So may just bottle it once primary is complete.
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Postby Adzmax » Wednesday Dec 20, 2006 9:57 am

On my first attempt fo this one, the "super orango beer" as I call it, I didn't rack it. I wouldn't bother either. Better to be murky.
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Postby drsmurto » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 1:52 pm

Just churned my way through all 9 pages and was quite interesting to see this recipe 'tweaked'. One of the reasons i spend too much time reading about brewing and far too little actually brewing.....

Reckon you have done enough of the spade work for me to have a crack. :)

Only questions is regarding priming - are you using dextrose or dried wheat malt?

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Postby Adzmax » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 2:20 pm

I'm using dex, in all honesty I don't think it'll matter too much :)
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Postby Danzar » Thursday Dec 21, 2006 6:28 pm

Yeah, I'm going to wait until I can get those Seville oranges but I think we've all tweaked this nicely so that it should be a much better improvement.

On the issue of using a zester vs knife, I really suggest you use a zester. Don't worry about yield - orange peel is extremely strong and you'll get your flavour.

Just zest two oranges. You only want that flavour light. Plus, if you have too much peel, you'll get too much oil and it will kill your head.
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Postby Adzmax » Friday Dec 22, 2006 8:37 am

Took me a bit to get the hang of the knife but I ony just scraped the surface, found the zester was too blunt.....stupid 80's zester :roll:
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Postby afromaiko » Tuesday Dec 26, 2006 10:36 pm

Up to the 10th day in primary now, was sitting around 18 degrees in the brew fridge to keep the temp down but now it's settling a little and the wort has dropped to 17 degrees by itself. Melbourne's general temperature has plummeted over the last few days too.

Gravity is reading 1.018 - what FG should we be aiming for here? If I watch for a couple of minutes I'm still seeing bubbles, so looks like it's going to need at least a few more days yet.
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Postby Adzmax » Tuesday Dec 26, 2006 10:56 pm

I'm on the 8th day myself, the krausen is very thick and has only gotten bigger. Doesn't look like mine will be finshed any time soon. This seems like a slow yeast, even with the starter.
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Postby afromaiko » Wednesday Dec 27, 2006 10:02 pm

afromaiko wrote:Up to the 10th day in primary now, was sitting around 18 degrees in the brew fridge to keep the temp down but now it's settling a little and the wort has dropped to 17 degrees by itself. Melbourne's general temperature has plummeted over the last few days too.

Gravity is reading 1.018 - what FG should we be aiming for here? If I watch for a couple of minutes I'm still seeing bubbles, so looks like it's going to need at least a few more days yet.


Next day now... Overnight the wort temp kept dropping, down to 16 degrees and it stopped bubbling in the airlock. Krausen dropped too. Gravity is about the same, so perhaps the low temp had sent the yeast to sleep? (using liquid Wyeast 3994)

I bumped the temp back up to around 20 with a heat belt and now it's bubbling again. Will try to maintain the warmer temps for a few more days to properly ferment out.
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Postby Zuma » Wednesday Dec 27, 2006 10:57 pm

I have also put this brew on.

With a few subtle changes.

I used 1kg wheat which I cracked and steeped with the zest of 5 oranges and 50gm coriander seed.

I added 45gm Hallertauer and a Saaz Stee Pac.

Also added 500gm of corn syrup.

Just racked it and had a taste, must say I was impressed.

The orange flavour is mild but is noticeable. Seemed to linger in the mouth a while. Pleasant enough for sure!

Can't wait to bottle and drink!! :)
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Postby afromaiko » Friday Dec 29, 2006 9:36 pm

Looks like it's done now, FG will be 1.012 and am bottling tomorrow.

Had a taste and it's come out really nice, took ages for the head to settle before I could take a gravity reading. Even though it was warm it was easily drinkable.

The 3994 seems like a temperamental bugger so don't let it drop below 18 deg C for too long. So, I think warming it up again did the trick and helped it finish off the ferment.
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Postby SpillsMostOfIt » Sunday Dec 31, 2006 12:35 pm

Adzmax wrote:Took me a bit to get the hang of the knife but I ony just scraped the surface, found the zester was too blunt.....stupid 80's zester :roll:


I used an OXO potato/vegetable peeler and it worked so close to perfect that you wouldn't know the difference. You can then cut it up into smaller pieces again once it has dried, thus preserving the wonderous, head-reducing aromatics... :)
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Postby afromaiko » Thursday Jan 04, 2007 12:43 pm

It's been on the bottle only about 6 days now, but it's bloody hot here and I wanted to drink something lighter than a porter so I cracked a stubby open.. have to say that already it tastes awesome! So much so that I've chucked another long neck in the fridge to have this arvo.

It was carbed up really well, but the head retention was quite poor. So this is possibly from the oils in the peel then? I wonder if a little bit of maltodextrin may help it along in the next batch. Does anyone know if that has a stronger resistance to oils etc than the wheat malt would have?

I haven't had a real Hoegardden for almost two months, but this tastes like one to me. I think I'll avoid the real ones for a while since this home brew tastes great and I don't really want to bother with any picky comparisons.

Thanks everyone for working through this recipe!
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Postby KEG » Thursday Jan 04, 2007 1:59 pm

bring me round a bottle! :D :lol:


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Postby lethaldog » Thursday Jan 04, 2007 4:17 pm

afromaiko wrote:It's been on the bottle only about 6 days now, but it's bloody hot here and I wanted to drink something lighter than a porter so I cracked a stubby open.. have to say that already it tastes awesome! So much so that I've chucked another long neck in the fridge to have this arvo.

It was carbed up really well, but the head retention was quite poor. So this is possibly from the oils in the peel then? I wonder if a little bit of maltodextrin may help it along in the next batch. Does anyone know if that has a stronger resistance to oils etc than the wheat malt would have?

I haven't had a real Hoegardden for almost two months, but this tastes like one to me. I think I'll avoid the real ones for a while since this home brew tastes great and I don't really want to bother with any picky comparisons.

Thanks everyone for working through this recipe!

The head will improve with more time in the bottle :lol: :wink:
Cheers
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Postby Danzar » Thursday Jan 04, 2007 6:31 pm

That's right. Plus I bet that if you used dried Seville orange peel, some of the oils would have leeched out. The torrefied wheat will help in time.

Did you use the recipe I posted? Any modifications?
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Postby afromaiko » Thursday Jan 04, 2007 9:58 pm

Well I tried another one, this time from a Cooper's PET bottle (previous was glass stubby). The head retention was much, much better and there was a lot of lacing on the glass too.

I don't think it had any thing to do with the bottle, but more that this one was slow chilled over a few hours in the fridge where my first test was crash cooled in the freezer. Anyway, thankfully it all seems fine.

Danzar, I used the most recent recipe with the half Saaz and half Goldings hops. Added half the malt at the start of boil, and the remainder at the end of boil along with the can of Whispering Wheat. Coriander and peel as per your recommendations.
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Postby Danzar » Friday Jan 05, 2007 11:24 am

Good stuff. I glad it went well for you.

I'm now chomping at the bit to do a fourth batch!
EDIT:

EDIT: After a ton of phone calls, I've resigned myself to the fact that I can't get Seville oranges until the winter months, which means I'll stock up then and dry the peels in readiness for spring.

However, there are two alternatives that should always be used above standard orange peel - they are either mandarine rind (dried in the oven or on the kitchen bench over a couple of days) or a jar of bitter marmalade. I'm updating the recipe. Credits go to Pixelboy, NTRabbit, Lethal, AussieClaret, Adzmax & Afromaiko. Here it is:

INGREDIENTS
1. 1 can of Blackrock Whispering wheat (or Brewcraft Belgian Wheat Beer)
2. 1.5kg (can) of liquid wheat malt (or 1.5kg of dried wheat malt - take your pick). Remember that the Hoegaarden is a wheat/barley blend.
3. 12g coriander seeds cracked.
4. 14g dried orange rind from the Seville orange, only available in winter months. If you can't find it, do not use standard orange rind. Instead, dry out some mandarine peel or use a jar of bitter marmalade in the boil.
5. 750g - 1kg torrefied wheat.
6. 3944 Belgian Witbier Yeast.
7. Saaz hops (14g).
8. K Goldings hops (14g)

BREWING INSTRUCTIONS
1. In 2-3 litres of water, boil your goldings hops, crushed coriander seeds and dried orange rind (or marmalade). At the 5 minute mark, add the malt. At the 10 minute mark, add the Saaz hops. After 5 more minutes remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Steep your torrefied wheat in 5-6 litres of freshly boiled water for 30 minutes. See note below.
3. Strain the liquid from the steeped wheat into a smaller pot and boil this liquid for a few minutes ON A LOW HEAT (it's mainly water but it will burn and congeal) - just to kill any nasties.
4. Strain the liquid from the boiled fermentables into your fermenter.
5. Add the boiled liquid from torrefied wheat to the fermenter.
6. Top up fermenter with COLD (I refrigerate as much water as I can the night before as your wort will be pretty hot at this point and needs cooling, particularly in summer).
7. Take your SG reading.
8. Add the yeast. Ideal pitch temp is around 22 degrees max.

NOTES:
The yeast is tempremental so keep it above 18c. If pitch temp is high, you may want to leave the slightest of gaps when you put the lid on the fermenter, just for the first two days. Otherwise your airlock may vomit krausen.

SOLVED: Don't boil the orange for too long. I originally boiled for a full 15 minutes and it's too strong. 5 minutes should be fine. THIS SHOULD NO LONGER BE A PROBLEM IF YOU USE THE DRIED MANDARINE RIND OR MARMALADE.

The torrefied wheat sucks up alot of liquid, hence I've increased the steep amount to 5-6 litres. I'd even recommend doing this step the night before, as six litres of freshly boiled water will murder your pitch temp, even with all the refrigerated cold water. At least that way you won't have to refrigerate as much.

PHEW! That's it. If anyone tries this exact recipe, please do a taste test alongside a real bottle of Hoegaarden and tell us how close it is. Failing that, I'm going to put this exact recipe down in two weeks and will report back in 6-8 weeks.

I reckon I'm now done with this one.

:D :D :D
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Postby youbrewty » Friday Jan 05, 2007 7:39 pm

does anyone know if the pirces on the coopers website are including postage?
i imagine they arent but hopefully they are!
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Postby lethaldog » Friday Jan 05, 2007 8:01 pm

I doubt it , i can tell you that coopers are dearer for thier own products than anyone else, you can get all you need from Big W or most supermarkets for alot less :lol: :wink:
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