RFP - Tom's Initial Recipe and Brewing

In January, Jeff and I kicked-off our Recipe Formulation Project (RFP).  The core idea behind the project was to propel Lug Wrench into the recipe design and formulation world, a place where neither of of us had yet to venture.  I drew and decided to use two ingredients from our random list - honey malt and orange peel.  From these ingredients, I developed a beer concept called Spring in Your Step.  This concept was further refined into the recipe that can be found at the bottom of this post.

Spring in Your Step was brewed at the end of January.  The brew day was largely successful and I hit the majority of the target brew numbers (original gravity was only 0.02 specific gravity points low).  With all of the wheat in the mash, I elected to include rice hulls to prevent a stuck sparge.  A good rule of thumb is to use 0.5 pounds of rice hulls per 5 gallon batch if the recipe includes more than 25 percent wheat malt.  The only other notable issue dealt with the orange peel used in the recipe.  I forgot to purchase fresh oranges at the store before brew day and ended up using the peel of four tangerines that were slightly past their prime.  The peels were thinner than normal and did not have as much bright citrus aromatic oils as would be ideal, but the fruit was still good.

Spring in Your Step fermented normally at standard ale temperatures (68 F).  Even after crash cooling, settling, and the user of gelatin clarifier, the beer was cloudy.  With all of the wheat in the recipe, this is not completely unexpected.  However, it is possible that the suspended yeast and proteins played a role in the flavors in the beer early in its aging cycle, but more on that in a future post.

Here is a reference chart to keep track of the posts in the RFP project.  The Spring in Your Step recipe follows at the end of the post.

Recipe Formulation Project - Reference Guide
Project Introduction, Ingredient Pool, and Kick Off
Tom's Recipe: Beer Concept Initial Recipe and Brewing Initial Tasting Revision and Rebrew Follow-up Tasting	Jeff's Recipe: Beer Concept Initial Recipe and Brewing Initial Tasting Revision and Rebrew Follow-up Tasting

Cheers,

TW

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Spring in Your Step
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 6.00 gal    
Boil Size: 7.95 gal
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated Color: 5.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 27.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
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0.50 lb Rice Hulls
5.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
2.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Munich 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Wheat - White Malt (Briess) (2.3 SRM)
0.25 lb Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)

Hops
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0.50 oz Magnum [12.30 %]  (60 min)
0.25 oz Sarachi Ace [12.50 %]  (10 min)
0.25 oz Sarachi Ace [12.50 %]  (1 min)

Extras
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1.0 Tab Whirlfloc at 15 minutes
32 drops of Foam Control in the boil

Yeast
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11 grams - Safale US05 (Fermentis #US05), Dry Yeast

Mash Schedule
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60 min at 152.0 F