Brew Day: Ephemeral Cranberry Wit
Its time for another summer brew – this time a Wit brewed with cranberries. This recipe is formulated roughly along the lines of Unibroue’s Éphémère Cranberry, although in no way is this a clone. If you haven’t had this beer, you should try it – its fantastic! My recipe is aiming to achieve a similar beer, but is far from a clone. In fact, its essentially a leftovers beer – i.e. its been formulated as best as I can manage based on the grains & hops & yeast I have on hand.
In addition, I’m trying a split brew-day, where I’m mashing in late at night on Friday and then getting up at 6AM Saturday morning to finish the brew (not my choice – SWIMBO planned family events without mentioning them to me). I’m looking forward to seeing how well the split brew session works, because it may get me brewing more than my current busy schedule allows.
Recipe and brew-days notes below the fold.
| Ephemeral Cranberry Wit |
| Witbier |
| Type: All Grain | Date: 12-13 Jul 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l | Boil Size: 25.49 l | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boil Time: 60 min | End of Boil Volume 21.84 l | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ingredients | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Beer Profile | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG | Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.0 % | Bitterness: 14.3 IBUs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Est Color: 5.4 SRM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mash Profile | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge | Total Grain Weight: 4.75 kg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sparge Water: 17.86 l | Grain Temperature: 22.2 C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C | Tun Temperature: 22.2 C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE | Mash PH: 5.20 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (4.99l, 12.87l) of 75.6 C water | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ***first step added boiling to re-warm mash after overnight | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Created with BeerSmith | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brewday Notes
- Yeast were grown up from the bank a week in advance, all grain and water measured out mid-week.
- Mash-in went as per usual; it was odd ending a brew day after only 30 minutes…
Saturday Morning:
- 6AM was not the best of ideas, but at least its getting done.
- Mash dropped about 10C over the night, even though I insulated with a blanket – but it remaind warm enough to prevent bacterial growth/off-flavours
- Added first 5L of sparge water at boiling to bring temperature up
- Completed sparge
- Boiled, cooled and into the fermenter with plenty of time to spare!
- I overshot the mash gravity massively – gravity of the pre-boiled wort should have been 1.041, and I got 1.048
- I ended 15 points over where I wanted to be – 1.065 instead of 1.050! I’m wondering if the overnight mash did it?
