Witbier / Strawberry Wit

Based on meanbrews personal recipe. Adjust mash pH to 5.5. Using Citric/Malic/Tartaric because that's what I have on hand, so calc may be off -- start with like 3g and add more if needed. Allow fermentation to free rise from 70 degrees. Split into two kegs after primary, add strawberry juice to one half and keep keg cold to prevent referment.

Brewday: started with 9.5 gal, since I suspected that the 10.1 gal strike water recommended by BF was going to be more than my 12gal kettle could handle. Even at 9.5gal, still spilled over -- probably lost around half a gallon. Hit mash-in temp of 153 exactly. Only used 3g of acid blend to start, and glad I did because pH readings 10 min into mash were around 5.16 (did finally come up to 5.55). Temperature and hydrometer readings were really wonky throughout, I think because the grist was covering the entire bottom of the kettle and keeping heat and sugars trapped there. Kinda hate brewing with that bag...time to move on to something else for sure. Rinsed grains with 1qt of boiling water at end of the mash because I was concerned about gravity being low. I was right to be concerned -- even with the rinse, corrected pre-boil gravity was 1.033, at about 8.5 gal of volume. Boiled down to 8 gallons even to concentrate wort a bit before adding 60min hops. Realized that BF was accounting for the candi sugar in the mash, and that's throwing the SG off a bit, when the candi sugar won't be added until flameout. So probably corrected is more like 1.036-7, which is low but less absurd. I added an extra 1 oz of belgian candi sugar (so 6oz total) to again try to get back to a good gravity. Used whirlfloc (internet thinks it's fine for wit), clarityferm for gluten reduction, and put into fermenter at 70 degrees.

SG going into fermenter was 1.042. In addition to the problems mentioned above, I suspect that I just did not get a good enough stir inside the bag because the bag was so full and so cumbersome, and the boil kettle was also at capacity. This will be a very lightweight beer (oh well).

Results: Excellent beer, very clovey, a little sweet and quite malty. Probably the best I've made so far. Even the wife liked it.

Second brewday 10/18/24: My Saaz came in at 6.5% this time (woah!) so only using .65oz to get roughly the same IBUs. Have phosphoric this time for acid add. BF wants me to add 44mL, so I'll start with 30mL.