Last year a friend purchased me a few beers one of which was a Kiuchi Brewery Hitachino Nest White Ale, I’d never heard of the brewery before and really liked the beer. Researching into it a little it’s described as a Belgian-style wheat beer, flavored during the brewing process with coriander, nutmeg, orange juice, and orange peel. It’s also brewed with both ale yeast and Sake yeast, so seemed like a really interesting beer to put on my to brew list.
Having forgotten about it, it came back to the forefront of my mind when I went to the excellent Otters Tears for a meet the brewer with Hardknott Beer and tried their Nuclear Sunset, which is a great beer, try it if you can get hold of it.
And as luck would have it, I’d also ordered a BrewUK yeast lucky dip,
having waited for it to come back in stock and it arrived in November time and lo and behold some Sake yeast was in there. A quick starter solution was made (as this yeast is either close too or just beyond it’s best before) and hey presto fast forward to now and this weekend I’ll be brewing my version of Hitachino Nest.
As you’ll see I’m only planning on ditching the orange juice and only using Sake yeast, not sure if this will be a good or bad decision, but I figured if it gets stuck I can always add in some more yeast at a later date.
*Originally I had planned to brew this with Mandarina Bavaria as I wanted to draw out the citrus of the orange peel, but as usual I thought I had some but didn’t (and could justify the postage on 100gs of hops) , so subbed with 30IBU worth of Warrior for smooth bittering, and a straight swap for the aroma hops.
Wheat Beer
Type: All Grain Batch Size: 23.00 l Boil Size: 27.41 l Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 25.52 l
Final Bottling Vol: 23.00 l
Fermentation: 1 stage
ABV: 7%
Equipment:
- 40l Mash tun with false bottom (helps stop grain flowing into kettle)
- 32l Kettle
- 10l Pan
- Sieve
- Measuring Jug.
- Digital Thermometer.
- Cooling Coil
- Hydrometer (optional).
- Assorted receptacles for ingredients.
- Fermenting Bucket and Airlock.
Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU |
| 0.10 kg | For Starter Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) | Dry Extract | 2.4 % | |
| 4.7 kg | Lager Malt (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 68.1 % | |
| 2.2Kg | Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
Grain |
31.9% | ||
| 21.00 g | Warrior* | Hop | 30 IBUs | |
| 50.00g | Coriander seed ground | Herb | ||
| 28.00g | Dried bitter orange peel ground | Herb | ||
| 8.00g | Ground Nutmeg | Herb | ||
| 27.00 g | TNT * [8.8 %] – 0 mins | Hop | ||
| 1 tablet | Campden Tablet | |||
| Enough | StarSan | |||
| 1 teaspoon | Protofloc | |||
| 1.0 pkg | Sake Yeast (White Labs #WLP705) | Yeast | 0 | – |
nb. also planning on adding water additions to turn adjust my water to something more suitable to a wheat beer water profile this is optional and not listed as it’s Macc specific.
Prepare for Brewing
Create a yeast starter with 1.00 l of wort – typically this means adding 100gs of DME to 1l of water, bring to boil simmer for 15 mins, cool to pitching temperature, around 21c then pitch yeast. a good vessel for this is a 2l Erlenmeyer flask they come in a variety of sizes but are very handy. Cover the top with sanitised tin foil and aerate over a few days either with a stir plate, or by shaking when you remember to.
Brew time
The first step with any brewing is to make sure your kit (and work area) is clean and free from any cleaning product residue.
Measure out all ingredients, splitting the ingredients into Mash and Boil
20.36 l Strike water that we add to the grain to create the mash creating a mash temp of 68.9c
7.2 l 98.8c water to raise the temperature of the Mash after 45 mins to raise the mash temp to 75.6c (I generally boil a few kettles and use a small pot for this part)
9.13l Sparge water heated to 75.6c to sparge the mash.
Mash or Steep Grains
Mash Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU |
| 4.7 kg | Lager Malt (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 68.1 % | |
| 2.2Kg | Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
Grain |
31.9% |
Mash Steps
| Name | Description | Step Temperature | Step Time |
| Mash In | Add 20.36 l of water to create a mash temp of | 68.9 C | 45 min |
| Mash Out | Add 7.2 l of water to raise a mash temp to | 75.6 C | 10 min |
Fly sparge with 9.13 l water at 75.6 C
As you are fly sparging place your first hops into the kettle and run off directly onto the hops.
Add water to achieve boil volume of 27.41 l
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.059 SG
Boil Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU |
| 21.00 g | Warrior (15%) | Hop | 60 mins | 30 IBUs |
| 1 teaspoon | Protofloc at 45 mins into boil | 15 mins | ||
| 50.00g | Coriander seed ground | 5 mins | ||
| 28.00g | Dried bitter orange peel ground | 5 mins | ||
| 8.00g | Ground Nutmeg | 5 mins | ||
| 27g | TNT * [8.8 %] – 0 minss | Hop | 0 mins | 10 IBUs |
For the last 15mins of the boil add in protofloc and copper coil
Estimated Post Boil Vol: 25.52 l and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.066 SG
Cool and Transfer Wort
Cool wort to fermentation temperature
Transfer wort to fermenter
Add water if needed to achieve final volume of 23.00 l
Pitch Yeast and Measure Gravity and Volume
Fermentation Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU |
| 1.0 pkg | Sake Yeast (White Labs #WLP705) | Yeast | 0 | – |
Target: 1.045 SG)
(Target: 23.00 l)
Fermentation
Primary Fermentation (10.00 days at 21 c)
Secondary Fermentation
Cold Crash (7days 3c)
Bottling or kegging
Typically I add 1/3 teaspoon of sugar to 330ml bottle or 1/2 teaspoon to 500ml bottles.
Kegging is done at around 14psi and 7c
