Wheat Beer No 2 / Weissbier 40L Brewing Journal

Started 18th April 2025

This beer is normally decoction mashed or stepped mashed but as most breweries no longer do this due to well modified grains I will keep things simple and do a single infusion mash. The addition of a small amount of Melanoidin malt should ensure that the lack of stepped mashing does not impact adversly. IBU around 16, so not too bitter.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Recipe	Measure
Brew Length	40L
Wheat Malt	5500g
Pilsner Malt (EBC 3.5)	2500g
Munich Malt (EBC 25)	2500g
Melanoiden Malt (EBC 50)	100g
Hallertau Mittelfueh (Start of Boil) Barthaas	100g
Yeast (Using Starter)	WLP380
Mash Liquor	26.5 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
Fermentation Temperature	20C
Expected OG	1055
Actual OG	1049
Expected FG	1012
Actual FG

Water Treatment:

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate CAC03	150 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	40 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	105 ppm
CRS per Litre Required	5.5 ml/10L
Total CRS to add to Mash (26.5L)	14 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge water (31.5L)	16 ml
*Chlorine Treatment*
Campden Tablets (half in mash, half in sparge)	1 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water	105 ppm
Calcium Required	120 ppm
Adjustment	15 ppm
DLS (using GW Calc it suggests adding none)	1 Tsp

Water Schedule:

This brew will be batch sparged, so the water will be scheduled as follows:

Mash = 26.5L using 14 ml of CRS +1/2 Campden Tab
Top Up = 7.5L + Final Batch Sparge = 24L, Total 31.5L using 16 ml of CRS and 1/2 campden tab

Mashing:

I am using my SS Brewtech infussion mash tun, which will need to be preheated.

12L of water at 78C added to mast tun.
Remining 26.5L in HLT treated with CRS and 1/2 Campden tab.
26.5L of water added to the mash tun at 78C, which settled quickly to 72C.
Doughed in + 1 tsp of gypsum
Temperature dropped to 65C. which is a little lower than anticipated but not worth correcting.
Mash will now be left alone for 1.5 hours.

Sparging

31.5L of water heated to 78c and treated with CRS and Campden.
Added Top up of 7.5l at 78C and started the re-circ for 15 Min
Mash Tun drained into Boiler and heating started. Stopped draining once wort was no longer visible on sight glass
Wheat Malt has caused a fairly slow drain off but not a stuck mash.
Remainin 24L of sparge water heated to 78C was added to mash tun
Recirc run for 10 minutes.
Pumped wort into boiler, stopping just as turbid last runnings appeared in the pipes.

Boiling

Boiler switched on as soon as first few litres of wort were drained from mash Tun.
90 minute boil
100g hops added at start of boil.
Last 15 minutes. added Immersion coil inserted to ensure sterilised.
Some boiling wort was drawn into pump/pipes to sterilise.
Recirc started as soon as flame out.
Post boil gravity = 1049 and it looks like around 44L
Pumped into fermenter once below 25C.
Fermenter chiller is on to reduce to around 20C.

Fermentation:

A 1.7L yeast starter was prepared 2 days before. This starter took a long time to get going, maybe it was a bit cold.
18/04/25 - Yeast pitched. Starter was not decanted, full contents pitched. Temperature is 24c but conroller set to 20c.
19/04/25 - Fermentation is well underway and a thick Krausen has formed.
20/04/25 - Krausen has overflowed from the fermenter due to vigorous ferment.
22/04/25 - Still a helthy Krausen evident but is now slowing. Brix reading is 6.8 or SG1014, so nearing completion.

Tasting Notes:

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