Step 1 - Heat 3 litres of water to 75 degrees Celsius. Then add the Vienna Malt Grains (1.5kg) and the gypsum. I used my wife's Jam making pan which has a large capacity for such an occasion and a sugar thermometer that hung over the edge of the pan would allow me to keep an eye on the temperature of the water so I'd know when to add the grains.Step 2 - Then bring the temperature of the grain and waters mixture down to 65 degrees Celsius. I found that putting the pan on the smallest ring at the lowest setting on the ring kept it at a nice steady 65 degrees.
Step 3 - Mash the liquid for an hour. I have no idea what happens in a mash tunbut i assumed that keeping the temperature of the mixture for an hour at 65 degrees and covered would do the trick. I found that our largest frying pan would act perfectly as a lid for the pan.
Step 4 - Strain out the grains, pouring the water into a second pot. I achieved this by pouring from the pot through a sieve into the fermenting tub as a temporary storage.Step 5 - Heat 2 litres of water to 75 degrees and rinses the grains with it. I just boiled my kettle with 2 litres of water in it and after letting go a little bit of the boil, i poured the contents through the grains in the sieve into the liquid already in the fermenting tub.
Step 6 - Add the malt extracts (1.5kg Amber Malt and 1.5kg Wheat Malt) and Hallertauer Hops to the water and boil for 30 mins. I basically cleaned out my jam pot and poured the liquid (wort) from my fermenting tub back into it. Then as with my kit i warmed my cans of malt extract in warm water before opening and pouring the contents into the liquid and measured 42g of my hops on my scales and added, and after raising the temperature of the liquid to a rolling boil before setting a timer for 30mins.
Step 7 - 28 mins into the boil add the Chinook hops (9g) As above just weighed 9g of hops on my scales before adding to the pot.
Step 8 - Put 8 litres of water into your fermenter and add the hot wort. Top up the water so the volume reaches 23 litres. This is straight forward, there are markings all the way up the fermenting tub to show what the volume is.
Step 9 - when the wort temperature reaches is 25-27 degrees Celsius, pitch the yeast. Cover the mixture and attach the airlock the airlock. The temperature could again be gauged using the sugar thermometer. Pitching the yeast is really just a fancy term for adding it to the mixture. I used a liquid Hefeweizen yeast - this comes chilled and it needs to be removed from the fridge 3 hours or so before adding so it can get up to temperature. The airlock works just by half filling with water and placing in the hole in the lid of the fermenting tub. This shows you the activity in the tub without having to open he lid as bubbles appear to indicate how much fermentation is going on below - no activity means fermentation is over.
Step 10 - Ferment for at least 10 days before transferring and conditioning. I decided to do a secondary fermentation in my barrel after 10 days and then bottle condition. I'm experimenting with bottle conditioning and did my first batch after 4 days in the barrel - 14 days after brew day. This involved adding a little sugar to each bottle before filling with beer from the barrel. Doing it this way should mean i get maximum carbonation rather than losing most of it while bottling as i did with my first brew. I shall do another batch 3 weeks after brew day and then a last batch 4 weeks after brew day. This should determine the optimum fermentation time for the future. The beer will be bottled for at least 2 weeks before drinking.Early indications from appearance and aroma are that it has all the characteristics of a Weiss bier - which is very encouraging.
