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Whisky Wife Wit

Brewed: 01/29/2011 Bottled: 02/12/2010

Well, my hot brewing model liked Whisky Wife Wheat, but I really think that hefes are not really a style of beer that interests her as much as Belgium Wit beers. She likes her Shock Top and Blue Moons, and my Whisky Wife Wheat should really be more along those lines.... lighter with less of that hefe clove / banana taste and more citrusy orange taste.

At the same time, one of my intentions in 2010 was to start moving away from Mr. Beer ingredients. One thing I am did was to make WWW both with Mr. Beer and with a completely non-Mr. Beer formulation. The idea was to see which one the beer model preferred. The non-Mr. Beer recipe won easily.

The second batch I made of this was for 5 gallons (well... actually split between 2 fermenters, more like 4.8). The cost is about the same as half batch size using the Mr. Beer ingredients. It is very good that this is the preferred recipe.

To look on my blog for articles specific to this beer, click here.

In case you're worried about the name "Whisky Wife", the beer has nothing in it that tastes like whiskey. Do you remember the song "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba? It was pretty popular pretty early in our marriage. Part of it goes:

He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him Of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him Of the better times

I would quite often change the words to:

He has a whisky wife
He has a vodka wife
He has a lager wife
He has a cider wife

And sometimes when I needed a term-of-endearment for my bride, I would use "Whisky Wife". As in "Hey, Whisky Wife, get me a beer! NOW!" I don't use that one as much as I used to. I should start again. Don't you think?

Whisky Wife Wit Batch 2 --- cost $24.89

Style	Witbier	Batch Size	5.00 gal
Type	Partial Mash	Boil Size	6.13 gal
Mash Efficiency	70.00	Boil Time	60 minutes

Recipe Characteristics

Recipe Gravity

1.050 SG

Estimated FG

1.013 SG

Recipe Bitterness

15.9 IBU (Rager)

Alcohol by Volume

4.92 %

BU : GU

0.316

Recipe Color

3.9 SRM

Color

Measured OG:

1.058

Measured FG:

1.015

ADF:

74%

Measured ABV:

5.61%

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
5 lbs 4.0 oz	Briess Wheat LME (3.0 SRM)	Extract	70.00 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz	Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM)	Grain	16.67 %
1 lbs	Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)	Grain	13.33 %
1.00 oz	Hallertauer [3.80 %] (50 min)	Hops	15.9 IBU
1.00 oz	Saaz [4.00 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
0.52 tsp	Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min)	Misc
0.79 oz	Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min)	Misc
2.00 oz	Oranage Zest (Boil 5.0 min)	Misc
2 Pkgs	Belgian Witbier (harvested) (Wyeast Labs #3944) [Starter 125 ml]	Yeast-Wheat

Mash Profile

**Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
60 min	Mash In	Add 2.81 qt of water at 165.9 F	154.0 F

Batch Sparge Round 1: Sparge with 2.76 gal of 168.0 F water
Batch Sparge Round 2: Sparge with 3.19 gal of 168.0 F water

Recipe Notes
Note: 5 medium navel oranges zested came to 2 1/8 oz on 1/29/11
The flaked oats are actually the quick oats (either Quaker brand ... or I used King Sooper brand). Before mash, spread them out on a cookie sheet and cook in the oven at 325 for 15 minutes or so. Keep an eye on them and stir them around every few minutes.
Mash oats and malt in a grain bag in water for 60 minutes. Steep the mash bag in sparge water for 10 minutes each sparge. Combine first runnings with the sparge / steep into boiler.
Batch prime with 6oz of honey.

Brewing Record

Brew Date:		01/29/2011	Strike Temp:	165
Mash Temps:		130 (10 min) 154, 154, 150
Pre-boil OG		1.046 (1.043)	Pre-boil Vol	6.5 (6.13 gal)
Actual Mash Efficiency		NA	Pitch Temp	65
more brew day info on blog
Fermentation
Day 1:	Cold 58/60 most of the day. Got started, fine though
Day 2:	66/68 morning. Put in ice. 65 evening. Overflow.
Day ...

Click here to see previous recipes

Brewing Notes:

01/26/2011 Starter esheppy
Made a starter last night with about 2 cups of water. Will step it up to a whole liter before brewing. I will probably brew this weekend.

01/27/2011
Stepped up the starter with 4 cups water and 1 cup DME. Poured the whole fermenting 1st starter in. Seems to be going nicely. Should be plenty of nice healthy yeast for the beer.

01/29/2011 Brewing Day esheppy
Got up early to go to King Soopers for oranges (6 @3 for $1) and oat meal. Got store brand quick oats. Cooked them up at 325 for around 15 minutes on a couple of cookie sheets.

01/29/2011 Brewing Day 2 esheppy
Also zested up the oranges. Took 5 medium sized oranges to get 2 18oz zest. Note: I zested right after washing. Don't know if the water on them increases the weight. I would assume so, but I don't know by how much. Just need to be consistent next time I make this.

01/29/2011 Brewing Day 3 esheppy
The rest of the brew day went fine. I think maybe my scale is telling me to put too much of the LME in. The higher OG is ok, though. Pitch right at 65 into both Tuke and Rutt. No additional water.

02/01/2011 Blowout esheppy
Rutt blew its top sometime last night. It looks like both fermenters are calming down now.

02/02/2011 Still going esheppy
Cleaned up Rutt last night. It is still pushing out kraussen. Sort of weird. Rutt has been 58/60 the same time. Tuke has been warmer without as much going on.

02/12/2011 Bottled esheppy
Batch primed with 6oz honey. Seemed to take forever and wiped out most of my bottles. Got pretty good attenuation. 39 12oz bottles. 1 bomber. 2 liter bottles. 1 growler. Sample was good. Maybe too much orange peal, but based on last time, I think that blends into the background in a couple of weeks.

02/19/2011 esheppy
Its been a week and the bottles seem to be firming up pretty well. I've been nervous that perhaps I did not add enough honey. I did get a bit of a boil-over when preparing the priming solution. But, the firmness of the PET bottles is a good sign. Not really a whole lot I can do about it anyway, so I'll just see what happens.

02/26/2011 esheppy
Labeled this batch and put them in a conditioning cooler. No ice, though. I put the LB and an O into the beer fridge. May sample tonight or tomorrow, or I may wait a week.

03/01/2011 esheppy
I tried one last night and one a couple days ago. Pretty good. Might be a little too much orange peel. The head is thin and doesn't stick around very long. Don't think this batch is as good as the last time I brewed it. I will let it condition longer.

03/17/2011 esheppy
Had one tonight. Really starting to blend together nicely.If I had fridge space, I would put them all in, but since I don't, I'll let condition some more.

04/12/2011 esheppy
Having one tonight. Went side-by-side with Avery's "White Rascal". WWW is certainly more Americanized like Blue Moon. The flavor of WWW is hitting its peak, I think. The orange comes through very nicely. One thing I really am noticing tonight is that this WWW is much darker in color than the photo I have on this page (and MUCH darker than Avery's and Blue Moon). It is almost orange in color, I would say. And, I'm trying to figure out why this batch would be so much darker in color. The wheat extract was boiled for the full 60 minutes, but I did that on my last batch too. The only thing I can really think of was the toasting of the oats. I remember that I did just about burn some of the flakes, but I'm not sure that can account for this huge difference. Of course, I'm inside tonight and the picture was in the sun. I do think this beer is darker, though. It's a mystery to be sure. Right now, though, I love this beer.

05/27/2011 Bringing Camping
Have a growler of WWW coming camping with me this weekend. Between this and 15 year, hope I don't get too drunk.

05/30/2011 esheppy
Had the last liter of the old batch. Lots of orange. Very good. Very pleased with how well this beer ages.

10/27/2011 esheppy
Had a bottle. I am actually pretty impressed with the orange flavor comes through in this old a wheat beer. I think this is a nice beer to drink.

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