Minch Irish Grown Wheat Malt and Lemon Drop Hops

The second hop test was set to be Lemon drop in a wheat based saison.  Lemon Drop originally released by HopSteiner in 2012 as Experimental #01210. Its described  super as a Super Cascadian hop edging towards  the lemon end of the spectrum  has a unique combination of fruity and herbal notes, ideal for IPAs, Pale Ales and Saisons.-citrus aroma for late kettle additions or dry hopping. 

In the meantime Shane from The Homebrew Company and Alan from Minch Malt has offer me some of the first Irish what malt try out.  A fantastic first for Ireland and something the industry has been looking for a long while.

How is this unique Irish malt produced: “100% Irish grown wheat is malted on the Boby malting plant to produce unique small batch Irish Wheat Malt. Wheat Malt is made with a similar malting process to malting barley. Slightly shorter steeping time as the wheat does not contain its husk, and therefore absorbs water at a quicker rate to allow for germination. Germination takes places at high moisture content to allow for higher modification of the malt. via Minch Malting’s

Crushing the malt on the Blue Bollox

Mashing in time

Wheat Saison:

Batch Size (L):          24   

Total Grain (kg):         5.20

Anticipated OG:          1.047   

Anticipated SRM:           4.3

Anticipated IBU:          25.6

Brewhouse Efficiency:       70 %

Grist:

   %       Amount               Name                         

----------------------------------------------------

 67.0      3.50 kg.        Minch Hook Head Pale Malt 

 31.0      1.60 kg.        Minch Wheat Malt                   

  2.0       0.10 kg.        Sauer(acid) Malt                            

Hops:

 Amount     Name                             Boil Time

-----------------------------------------------------------

 15.00 g.     Magnum                            60 min.

 60.00 g.     Lemon Drop                      30 min Hop steep

 30.00 g.     Lemon Drop                      Keg hopping

Yeast:

Mixed house culture of  80% Dupont and 20% French sasion

First runnings

Grain bead after first runnings  

Overlay I found the malt lovely to work with, no issues with milling, stuck mash and even a number of  point higher than I was expecting. The Saison ended up at 1.007-1.008 a point or two higher than I want. However, that was more that I forget to  ramp the fermentation temperature at the end to dry it out a little more.But aside from that you can see for the pictures (below) the wheat malt give great head retention.  As for the Lemon drop, it works will with the Sasion yeast phenols and ester. Adding what I could describe as some citrus and lemon with a touch of menthol on the finish. 

Proof is in the drinking

Below is the second beer I brewed with the new Irish wheat malt. It is a New England IPA or white IPA, whatever floats your boat. The grist below is fairly simple, 

NEIPA/White IPA:

Grist: 

     %       Amount               Name                          

----------------------------------------------------

44.2     2.40 kg.             Minch Wheat Malt                   

42.3     2.29 kg.             Minch Hook Head Pale Malt

  4.8     0.26 kg.             Flaked Oats                   

  4.8     0.26 kg.             Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt                     

  3.8     0.21 kg.             Crystal 55L                                               

Hops:

 Amount     Name                         Boil Time

-----------------------------------------------------------

25.00 g.     Magnum                    60 min.

80.00 g.     Mosaic                       30 min Hop steep

50.00 g.     Mosaic                       Dry Hop

Yeast:

WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch Yeast

Thank  you again to Shane and Alan for letting me try the lovely hops and Wheat malt out . :)