I have made two batches. I love belgian style wheat beer. Any suggestions on kits to use? I like the idea of steeping my own grains. I’m not set up or ready for creating mash so maybe an intermediate brewing kit would help. I’d like a little more complicated kit then just extract and hops. It just seems simple and boring to only use the two. Any suggestions?
Try a partial mash.
Any particular kit that would give me similar results to like a blue moon or a dinky wheat? I know there are a lot of different ones out there.
The Witbier kit should get you pretty close
+1 to the witbier. Its also a style that lends itself to weird additions and adjuncts.
Indian Coriander or Madagascar?
Orange zest, lemon zest, grapefruit zest, tangelo zest, or chamomile tea at flameout? Or all of them?
These are questions that can be answered by brewing this style and figuring out what you really like to drink. If doing the partial mash, you can also experiment with adding some pre-gelatinized (“quick”) oats to it to give it some more body. I have a good friend that makes an amazing “Kiwitbier”.
I luuuurve me a good witbier, but I do feel the style has been a bit bastardized by Blue Moon and Shock Top. Not that they are bad beers to begin with, but if i see one more orange wedge or that $#@!$@ing orange mohawk, I might harm a small child. Allagash or Chimay? Bring it.
One last thing to the OP: you are ready to do a partial mash. If you can follow the directions and have been happy with your results on your last two brews, do it. I did 4 extract brews before going to all-grain, and its a blast. Once you have the basics down (and it sounds like you do), don’t be intimidated and just do it.
So partial mash doesn’t require any more equipment than extract does? Also I like orange and lemon in my witbier. Not the slice the zest
Barely any more equipment. You just put grains into a mesh bag and soak in water@170* or so, then remove the bag and add the remaining liquid to your boil, really easy. I think the witbier kit comes with orange peel and coriander, I made it for my wife a few years back. I’m not a huge fan of witbiers, but it was good and definitely better than blue moon.
what thome is describing sounds like ‘extract with specialty grains’, where they are steeped to give some residual sugars and malt character not available from extracts.
With a partial mash, you are actually mashing a small portion of the grains (usually at 148*-154*) to convert the sugars, then supplementing the rest of your fermentables with store-bought extract (liquid and or dry).
Equipment is the same though for both. All you need is a muslin bag that you can buy for pennies.
[quote=“Pietro”]what thome is describing sounds like ‘extract with specialty grains’, where they are steeped to give some residual sugars and malt character not available from extracts.
With a partial mash, you are actually mashing a small portion of the grains (usually at 148*-154*) to convert the sugars, then supplementing the rest of your fermentables with store-bought extract (liquid and or dry).
Equipment is the same though for both. All you need is a muslin bag that you can buy for pennies.[/quote]
The only difference between “extract with specialty grains” and “partial mash” is the absence or presence of base malts. They are EXACTLY the same process wise.
[quote=“rebuiltcellars”]
The only difference between “extract with specialty grains” and “partial mash” is the absence or presence of base malts. They are EXACTLY the same process wise.[/quote]
The temperature is more the distinction i wanted to make to the OP. Also, I think for a partial mash you typically need to go longer than steeping IIRC.
Oops, Pietro is right…I was talking about if you bought the Witbier kit, but looks like the extract version doesnt have specialty grains anyways.
As mentioned, the actual process is the same though, just time/temp are different for partial mash vs extract w/specialty. Search for Brew in a Bag, its a pretty simple all grain process and you might as well go that route since you’ll be doing it anyways with a partial mash, just without the extract. You put all your crushed grain in a big paint strainer bag, soak it ~152*(this varies depending on the qualities you want) for an hour or so, remove the bag, and viola you just did all grain. The mash tun route isnt much more difficult either btw
