Belgian wit brew questions

[lotusworker]

Got my first all grain brew under my belt. It turned out pretty good, but looking for a change on next batch. It is lacking the orange and coriander flavor that I rember when did extract and partial brews.

I used a paint strainer for hops and additives, but think should just dump in coriander and orange and just let it empty in carboy. Anyone have any similiar experience or suggestion?

 

[Cider123]

You want to be careful with coriander, it can overpower a brew. .5oz per 5 gallon batch would be the limit for me and I wouldn't let it sit in the fermenter. I'd just add for the last 5 min of the boil. BTW, coriander from the supermarket is not the type of coriander you need to use. You need the citrusy aromatic type that they sell at beer supply places or health food stores.

I don't like the dried orange peel they sell for brewing. I don't think you get much beyond some bitterness. I would recommend some fresh zested orange peel and add to last few minutes of boiling. You could let that sit in the fermenter also.

Now what I just tried for the first time was adding 2 cups of orangecella, which I made at home, to the primary after fermentation slowed. It is like super orangey licquor. The orange version of the italian lemoncello. We will see what that does.

 

[billl]

There is nothing about AG that would change the way corriander or orange would be expressed in a wit.


If you don't have as much of those as you want in your brew, you can "dry spice" a beer just like you dry hop.

 

[craigmw]

I recently made a witbier that turned out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself I used 1 oz of coriander seed crushed in my Barley Crusher (38 thousandths gap), as well as 1 oz dried bitter orange and about 1 valencia orange worth of fresh orange zest (right off the tree in the back yard) into 5.5g in the fermenter. The coriander and bitter orange peel were from MoreBeer. All were added about 5 min or so before flameout. I was concerned about over-spicing this beer, but it ended up just fine. A good malt backbone will prevent this, so you don't want your FG to go too much below about 1.015 or so (assuming an OG around 1.050 or so). I mashed at 152F, which helped to retain some residual non-fermentables. I also used flaked wheat and flaked oats, which helped for head stability and residual sweetness; these may have reduced the impact of the spice additions. Regardless, this is a wonderful spring/summer beer and the spice additions were perfect.