Brewer’s Log: Twice as Witty

Posted by Patrick under Brewer's Recipe Book, Home Brewing

Since the new brew rig is now ready for a pilot batch, it seems like a big beer is appropriate for the occasion. Sean brewed a tasty double wit last fall, using a scaled-down recipe of Vertical Epic 02.02.02 from Stone Brewing Company as his guide. Since I have a ton of Wit II yeast right now, and summer is fast upon us, a double wit sounds good.

I am adapting my house Wit recipe as the basis for the double wit, Twice as Witty, I’ll also be borrowing an idea from Stone’s VE 04: kaffir lime leaves in the secondary.

For 5 gallons, 75% efficiency:
7.5 lbs American 2-row malt
6.0 lbs White wheat (unmalted and cracked, thanks to Your DeKalb Farmer’s Market)
1.5 lbs flaked oats

.5 oz Nugget hops (leaf, 14.6% AA)
0.2 oz dried sweet orange peel
0.3 oz dried bitter (caracao) orange peel
0.4 oz crushed coriander
a few kaffir lime leaves

Mash in at 122 degrees for a 30 minute protein rest. Then add boiling mash liquor to get the mash temperature up to 148F for the 45 minute conversion rest. Sparge and boil.

Add all of the Nugget when boiling starts. At 45 minutes add Irish moss. At 50 minutes, add the orange peel and coriander. Knockout and pitch with White Labs 410 Wit II.

Expected OG: 1.078
IBUs: 45

Brewing notes
My mash extract efficiency was only 60% — much lower than the conservative 75% I used to formulate this recipe. The problem tonight was introducing a new (and uncalibrated) thermometer into the mix on my mash tun. I hit the 122F protein rest just fine, but could only manage a 145F conversion rest. I needed to add almost boiling water, but it was only 190F. Those few degrees made it impossible to get to 148F without making the mash very, very thin. That temperature is *just* inside the alpha amalase working zone for starch conversion, and the efficiency suffered as a result.

I’ll be replacing that thermometer with a digital probe model, and that problem should be solved. In the mean time, I guess this beer will be only “One and one-half times as Witty.”