Hey all, first post. I've been brewing since this spring (when my wife made the mistake of getting me a "make yor own beer" kit from the LHBS), and have learned a ton from the brewcasts and lurking here on the board.
I recently made the jump to all-grain, and I'm still trying to get my head around some of the mashing science & techniques. I'm hoping some of you all-grain gurus can help me out with something. I'll be brewing a Belgian witbier this afternoon, and I have some questions. Here's my grin bill:
10.5 lb. 2 row
1.5 lb. Flaked Wheat
1 lb. Flaked Oats
Now my recipe calls for a single infusion mash w/mash out. However, I was listening to the Witbier episode of the Jamil show this morning, and Doc went over his mashing technique for wits. He does two mashes, one for the wheat & oats, and one for the 2 row. For the wheat/oat mash, he does a protein rest at 122, raises to 148-150 for sac rest, then raises to a boil, and boils for 15 min. Meanwhile, the 2 row has been doing a protein rest @122 - he then adds the boiling wheat/malt decoction to the 2 row to raise the mash to 155 for a 45 minute rest. He then goes on to raise the mash to 160 for 15 minutes, then sparges. Doc said that doing a single infusion with all of the grains together would put a significant dent in your efficiency.
This is a fairly complex process, and it contradicts the recipe I'm working from (one of a bunch of ProMash .rec files I found recently, supposedly from B3). So my questions are:
1. How much efficiency will I lose by doing a single infusion? I'm not worried about a point or two, but Doc made it sound like the difference is worth the extra work.
2. Efficiency wonkery aside, how many of you go through this sort of complex mash schedule for your wits?
3. My recipe also calls for whirlfloc - this goes against most of the conventional wisdom I've heard about wits and wheat beers in general. What's you're take on this?
