Beer Forum

Is it possible? This'll be my first beer attempt. Or, should I do something easier like a Hefe?

I originally planned a Hefe a few months ago, but life got in the way. As we near summer, a would prefer a more refrshing style.

Can you do a mini mash? It would probably be pretty hard as an all extract. You need to get some unmalted wheat and oats in there.

I don't have the equipment for a partial mash, but I am not sure exactly what that is. Is it hard?

A partial mash is your next step in brewing.

Do you do any steeping of grains now? When you're doing that, your getting lots of good stuff out of the grains and it's a big improvement over using just liquid extract or dried extract. The problem is that there are some grains that won't give you what you need by steeping. That's where the partial mash comes in.

Equipment you need:

2 pots.
Grain bag.
Thermometer.

Concepts needed:

"Mashing"
"Sparging"

In a nutshell, "mashing" is the process of letting grains sit in a body of water to break down the straches in the grain, and convert that into the yummy sugars your beer needs. After you mash your grains, you then do a process known as "sparging". Now, sparging is nothing more than running hot water over the mashed grains to wash out all the sugars you created.

It sounds tough, but bear with me. It'll be easy.

Let's say we're going to make a nice Witbeer, similar to Blue Moon. Your beer is going to be better. Now, I haven't done an extract batch in a while, so if someone wants to tweak this one, be my guest. I would do the following.

Can of pilsner (or similar light color. The lightest you can find) extract.
4 lbs of wheat malt.
1/2 lb Munich malt
1/4 lb Flaked oats.
2 oz Kent Goldings hops.
4 oranges.
1 oz coriander.

Here's the fun part. Grab the kettle you've been making your extract batches with. This is going to act very similar to what all grain brewers call the "mash tun". Add your water. How much water? Well, a good rule of thumb is about 1/2 gallons of water for every pound of grain you have. Here we have about 4.5 pounds, so let's say about 2 and a half gallons of water. Bring this water to a temprature of 175 degrees or so. You see, grains have a magic temperature range where the conversion works best.

Now put the ground up wheat malt, oats, and munich malt into a grain bag. (btw, ask the folks at your local homebrew shop for help if you're not 100% sure of what you're doing. They're always happy to help!) I recommend elevating the bag slightly off the bottom of the pan with a piece of string. I found that this helped to keep the grains from being caramelized by the heat of the kettle.

Now, you're going to want to submerge the grain bag. Stir the pot up a bit. Take a temp reading. You want the mash to be at about 150-153. If too low, turn up the heat. If too high, toss in some cold water. Keep your water at that magic 150 degrees at all time!

Now sit back and have a beer. Those grains are going to have to sit for about an hour. This will give you time to get set up for stage 2. The sparge.

This is why you need another pot. In the second pot you're going want to have about 3.5-4 gallons of water. Bring this water up to about 180-190.

Now the time has come to sparge. Lift the grain bag out of the water, but still over the first kettle. Slowly (some folks use a pitcher) pour the sparge water over the grain bag. Get all those sugars out. Congrats, brutha! You just made your first all grain wort! Pour yourself another beer.

Ditch those grains, add your extract and brew as you have always brewed.

1 oz of the hops will be for bittering (60 minute addition) and the other for aroma (end of boil). When you kill the heat, zest in the rinds of the oranges and add the coriander.

For yeast I recommend White Labs WLP400 or Wyeast 3944.

Enjoy the best damn wit beer out there, and give the rest of your stock of blue moon to a homeless guy. You won't drink the stuff again after making your own.

You know, re-reading this thread I just realized you said this is going to be your first beer.

A partial mash is a stage 2 kind of thing.

Here's what I would recommend. Your first 2 or 3 batches should be about learning process. What you need to focus on is how to set up a game plan, and how to maintain sanitation throughout the procedure. You don't run the tour de France without first learning how to ride. No shame in training wheels, my friend. We have all been there.

Go to your local homebrew shop and look at the kits they have for sale. Find a beer style you like, and do the kit. Don't much around with your own recipes until you've mastered the process.

After you have a few batches under your belt, then read by above recipe for a wit beer.

Unless you're a braver man than I am.

Did the following all extract recipe - in 2nd-ary right now, so can not comment on taste yet. at 14 days - gravity = 1.015. Good color, but need to keg it and get it cold conditioned. will write back then. Happy brewing.

Ingredients;

3.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 50.00 %
3.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 50.00 %
1.00 oz Goldings, B.C. [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 17.9 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.75 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.75 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.75 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2 Pkgs Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944) Yeast-Wheat

Per some interview with the brewer at sandlot brewing aka Coors said they user American Ale yeast in Blue Moon. Its not a traditional wit. I've brewed several versions of Blue Moon clones and this version is the one I like the best. http://hopville.com/recipe/40372/witbier-recipes/blue-loon-v4-back-to-the-nest

Its a simple recipe. The honey makes is finish dry and light. I've also used fresh zest in place of the dried sweet orange peel. I've found a 2 to 1 orange total to corriander ratio is best. Corriander can get pretty strong but it will lessen after a few weeks. I usually just crush the corriander with a rolling pin in a plastic bag or just a couple pulses in a clean coffee grinder.

PM me if you have questions

How could I modify this recipe to make it a Beverian (Sp?) style Hef?