Earlier today, I made my first all grain recipe. I chose a Witbeer because the in recipe I had was easy to understand. Also, from being a Blue Moon fan, I had an idea how the final product should taste. Everything went relatively well. While doing the mash step temperatures, I was on the mark almost exactly. My original gravity was predicted a 1.042. My actual gravity was 1.042 or as much as I can tell by guessing at the mark in my equipment. If it wasn’t exactly on, it was very close. New wort smells about right. I had a stuck sparge for just a moment. The only other mistake I made was to not put the hops, orange peel, and coriander in a bag. Some of the hops made it out of the kettle into the ferminter. Some of the orange peel kept trying to clog up the kettle drain. If this is as hard as it gets, I’ll keep doing all grain. I would guess it took about 7 hours from start to finish. Most of my time was spend standing by the process and monitoring what was going on. After a few more and getting used to the process, hopefully, I’ll be able to occasionally wander off and read a book.
Yes, it is pretty easy.
I have been known to take a couple trips around the yard with the mower after mashing in. Then come back to put the heat on the sparge water.
Blue Moon isn’t a particularly good example of a witbier, yours should taste better. Once you get your process down you ought to be able to shave some time off that brew day too.
