Monday, May 24, 2010

Rapist's Wit

Origin:
The Beers name is from a line in Dumb and Dumber. Harry and Lloyd are about to talk to Mary explaining that they returned her suitcase. Lloyd wants Harry to go talk him up to her saying, "Wait a second, I have an idea. You go over and introduce yourself. That way you can build me up so when I come along I won't have to brag about myself. Tell her I'm good-looking and I'm rich and I have a rapist's wit."

Ingredients:
  • 7 lbs Wheat Extract
  • 2 oz Mt. Hood hops (4.6% alpha-acid, whole leaf)
  • White Labs Belgian Wit Ale Yeast
  • 1 lb. Flaked Wheat
  • 1 tsp crushed coriander
  • Zests of 2 large oranges
Procedure:
On Friday May 21st I purchased the majority of the ingredients through Main Street Homebrew Supply Co. in Hillsboro, OR and began brewing when I got home.
Tap water in Hillsboro does not have a bad taste so I poured 3 gallons of water into the kettle and began to steep my grains (1 oz. Flaked Wheat).

I began heating the grains for the mash by pouring the grains in a nylon bag over the kettle so none was wasted. While the grain was heating I began preparing the orange zest and coriander stirring the oats around in the bag every few minutes.
The zest is colored part of a citrus fruit like an orange or lemon and has a very strong aroma which is desirable in brewing. Carefully removing the zest from the orange I was careful to minimize the amount of the white portion of the peel because it is bitter and will not give your beer a desirable taste. The image to the right shows the oranges after they have been zested and the resulting pulp. A before a before picture of the orange is shown for reference. Note: The zester is the pointed part of most cheese graters, the part you don't use for cheese.

I didn't have a sophisticated way to crush the coriander so I sanitized the cutting board and hammer and crushed it in a plastic bag(Shown Above)

Around the time I finished prepping the other ingredients the mash reached 180 degrees F. I removed the bag. When the mash began to boil I added 7 pounds of liquid wheat extract and stirred until dissolved. After it began to boil again I followed the following schedule:
Hops/Ingredients Schedule:

Quantity Ingredient Boiled for
1 oz. Mt. Hood Hops Entire 60 min. Boil
1 Tblsp. Crushed Coriander Last 20 min. of boil
1/2 oz. Mt. Hood Hops Last 15 min. of boil
2 (Large) Oranges Zests Last 10 min. of boil
1/2 oz. Mt. Hood Hops Last 5 min. of boil

After the completion of the hour boil the hops were strained (shown right) and sparged into a block of ice to drop the temperature to 80 degrees F. Once the wort reached 80 degrees
I pitched the White Labs Belgian Wit Ale Yeast and put the lid on the brewing bucket. I placed the bucket calm quiet closet and there is waits for transferring to secondary fermenter.

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