Brew #38: "Shocking" Wit, March 11, 2016

This brew was a dry run for a future brew (#43) that I'm brewing for my boss's party.  The last time I made a witbier was #2 back in June 2014, and that was a straight extract kit.  I wanted to give an all grain version a try before committed to tapping a full batch in front of my co-workers, giving me a chance to tweak a recipe a bit if necessary. Plus #35 was about to kick and I needed a lower ABV "daily drinker" to put on tap.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.051 (1.050)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.011 (1.008)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (68%)
IBUs: 17
Color: 4.1 SRM
Style: Witbier
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
4.5 lbs US Pilsner
4 lb US White Wheat
8 oz Flaked Oats
8 oz Flaked Wheat
4 oz Munich
8 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
0.5 oz Hallertau (pellets) @ 45 min.
1.0 oz Cascade (pellets) @ 10 min.

Other:
0.75 oz coriander seed, freshly crushed @ 5 min
0.5 oz dried bitter orange peel @ 5 min
0.5 oz fresh lime zest (6 fresh limes) @ 1 min
0.5 oz fresh lemon zest (5 fresh lemons) @ 1 min

Yeast:
WLP400 Belgian Wit

Brewing Notes
3/11/16 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 12.75 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 168F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls. 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 152-154F
• 15 minutes: temperature was 149-150F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 145-150F
• 65 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Heated 6.5 gallons sparge water with pH 5.2 to 195
• Ran off and fly sparged until I had 6.5 gallons
• Boil gravity was 10.4% - 1.041, 1 point over target
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  0.5 oz Hallertau (pellets) @ 45 min.
  1.0 oz Cascade (pellets) @ 10 min.
  0.75 oz coriander seed, freshly crushed @ 5 min
  0.5 oz dried bitter orange peel @ 5 min
  0.5 oz fresh lime zest (6 fresh limes) @ 1 min
  0.5 oz fresh lemon zest (5 fresh lemons) @ 1 min
• Chilled  and ran to BMB.  I have a kettle valve now.  Much Better. Volume was 5 gallons.
• Took an OG brix reading of 12.6% which calculated to to 1.050.
• Pitched yeast starter directly

3/11 - 3/26/16 - Fermentation:
It took until the morning of 3/13 for a visible krausen to begin to form.  I'm so used to yeast starters.

3/26- Kegging:
Siphoned to the keg. I pressurized/purged at 10psi 3 times and put in the kegerator to force carb. 6.0% brix, 1.008 FG, 5.5%

3/30 - 5/23 - On Tap:
Just like #37 I tapped this after only 5 days because I wanted to see how long was really needed to force carb.  This was still a little on the flat side so I guess 5 days was too early. This is a good refreshing beer that's easy to drink especially after a bike ride.  When people taste (including my boss), I've been getting "Wow that's really good...but..." and the story is always the same.  Maybe to much lemon and lime, not enough orange coming through.  For the actual party beer I'm going to cut the lime and lemon in half and use fresh orange zest instead of dried orange peel.