Belgium Blonde (Malt Miller Kit)

Started 1st March 2015

I have been looking to try a Belgium beer recipe for a while but as these recipes require some specialist malts and ingredients, this was putting me off. The Malt Miller are now selling a Belgium Blonde Kit, which has everything you need, so I could not resist giving this a try.

The Recipe uses Fermentis T-58 yeast, which is described as a "Specialty yeast selected for its estery somewhat peppery and spicy flavor development". I have not used this yeast before but it sounds great.

There are no special mashing instructions for this kit, so a simple single step infusion mash will be used.

Recipe

Ingredients:

Recipe	Measure
Dingemans Pilsen Malt	5000g
Dingemans Aromatic Malt	227g
Dingemans Wheat Malt	227g
Candi Sugar syrup (last 10 mins of boil)	680g
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh (90 Min)	83g
Yeast	T-58
Mash Liquor	24.4 Litres
Strike Heat	72C
Mash Temperature	66C
Mash Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Sparge Temperature	77C
Mash Efficiency (estimated)	75%
Boil Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Batch Volume	23 Litres
Fermentation Temperature	20C
IBU	36
Expected OG (ABV 7.2%)	1065
Actual OG (ABV 6.9%)	1063
Expected FG	1010
Actual FG	? Forgot

Water Treatment:

The Anglian water in my area is very hard and therefore I will need to reduce the alkalinity to have any chance of making a decent Blonde beer. The water properties required will be: Alkalinity as CaC03 - up to 30 p.p.m., Calcium - 100 to 120 p.p.m.

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate (CAC03) Anglian - Measured with Salifert Kit	183 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	30 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	150 ppm
CRS per Litre Required	0.8 ml/L
Total CRS to add to Mash - 13.6L	11 ml
Total CRS to add to Top Up - 6.8L	5 ml
Total CRS to add to Batch Sparge - 13.9L	10 ml
*Chlorine Treatment*
Campden Tablets (half in mash water, half in sparge water)	1/2 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water (Cac03 X 0.4)	73 ppm
Calcium Required	110 ppm
Adjustment	37 ppm
Gypsum	1/2 tsp

To calculate the water required for the batch sparge, I am using Jims Calculator, see Here. This calculator needs adjusting to your own equipment and on my first attempt I ended up with 5L more than planned. The default "loss" parameters seem a little high, particularly the 15% boil loss, where I think 10% is more reliable.

The following parameters were used for the water volume calculations:

Batch Volume = 23L
Boil Loss = 10%
Loss to hops = 2L
Total Grain Bill = 5.454 Kg
Mash Tun Dead Volume = 1L
Liquor to Grain Ratio = 2.5Kg

This results in the following water requirements:

Water Required for Mash = 13.6L
Water Required for Top Up = 6.8L
Water Required for Second Batch Sparge = 13.9L

Mashing:

Mash water was heated to 78C and 13.6 litres added to the warmed mash tun.
Water temperature dropped to just below 72C immediately as it was very cold in the Garage at this time of year.
The Grain was kept inside overnight to ensure that it was at room temperature.
Doughed in - temperature dropped to 67C immediately. The grain was quite powdery so needed a lot of mixing and by the time I had finished the temperature was at 66C.
As it was cold in the garage I added a couple of blankets to the Mash tun and then left well alone for the full 1 hour 30 minutes.
The final temperature was around 64C which was lower than I wanted but not a problem.

Sparging:

The Mash tun was topped up with 6.8L of water at 85C and stirred well. This was left for 15 Minutes before slowly draining.
About halfway through draining, the flow started to slow down significantly and eventually stopped. At this stage their was not much wort left so I decided to carry on and add the second batch sparge water.
13.9L of water at 79C was added to the mash tun and the grain stirred well.
After 15 minutes the wort was drained but again this was very slow and eventually came to a complete stop. A few good strong blows up the drain pipe seemed to get this going again but it was not long before it stopped for a 3rd time. I had to repeat the unblocking process a couple more times to get the remaining wort out of the mash tun.
The wort looked almost milky and the spent grain looked like a pancake on top. I think that there must have been too much fine material in the crush as this is the first time I have ever seen this.

Boiling:

As Mash Tun was emptied, the wort was added to the boiler a few litres at a time. The gas was put on the keep the wort from cooling.
Brought to boil and added 83g of hops.
Boiled for 1 hour 20 minutes then added Candi Sugar, 1/2 Protofloc and Immersion Chiller.
After a further 10 minutes the gas was turned off and the chiller water started.
It took around 30 min to cool to 24C

Fermentation:

I have ended up with around 2L more wort than planned. I have checked my water volume calculations and they do not seem far out so I am not sure where I went wrong. I guess that I must have measured something incorrectly. The SG was affected by the increased volume but I must have attained a better efficiency as the end result was only 2 points off the expected value at 1063.
1st March 16:30 - Yeast was pitched on top of wort and left for 10 minutes and then stirred well. the temperature was 24C and the fermenter was connected to STC1000 controller and a heat pad. The fermenter was also wrapped in blankets to keep it warm in the garage overnight.
2nd March 16:30 - Temperature is at 18.4C and there is a good thick Krausen, so fermentation has started.
3rd March 15:30 - Temperature stable at 18.2C. Large bubbles are breaking through the Krausen and the Fermentation looks quite violent. I had read that this yeast produces an eggy smell but was not prepared for the hole garage to have this pungent smell. I would not recommend using this yeast for fermentation inside the house, unless you are (or want to become) a batchelor.
5th March 15:30 - Still smells of egg but the Krausen is now subsiding to a thin layer of bubbles. Still fermenting well.
7th March - Fermentation has now slowed down to a gentle bubble. I will leave the fermenter alone over the weekend but will switch off the heater and add an airlock soon after.
9th March - it looks like Fermentation is complete, so an airlock has been fitted and the temperature control switched off. It is still between 6-10C at the moment so this should encourage the beer to clear.
23rd March -

Kegging / Bottling

On 23rd March the beer had visibly cleared, so was ready for kegging. There was still some haze but this will clear up with age.
I have around 26L, which equates to a 5L Mini Keg, 2X500ML bottles and a 19L Corny.
All equipment was washed in Oxy Clean and sterlisied with a combination of Star San and IO Star.
The bottles and mini Keg were primed with 1/2 tsp of sugar per 500ml.
The Corny will not be primed as it will be force carbonated. After purging a few times the regulator was set to 30 Psi as this beer requires a higher carbonation level than my normal brew.

Tasting Notes:

While transferring the beer into the Keg, I filled a glass to try. Even though this beer is very young, it tasted very smooth and did not have any strong flavour's from the T-58 yeast. This should make a great summer beer if it matures well.

One month after bottling a bottle was opened and sampled. The beer is very clear and has a clean taste. There appears to be a nice level of residual sweetness and the beer does not taste strong in alcohol (even though I know it is). There are no strong ester flavours, so it seems that a well balanced beer has been produced. This should improve further with time, so I will save the 19L Keg of this beer for the warmer weather and chill via my flash cooler.