Witbier recipe critique.

[TechyDork]

Interested in everyone's thoughts on this Belgian wit recipe. This is a 10g recipe.

OG - 1.051
FG - 1.014
IBU - 17
SRM - 4

10 lb White Wheat Malt
6 lb Pale 2 Row (Bel)
2 lb flaked wheat
1 lb flaked oats

2 oz EKG @ 60
1.5 oz coriander @ 5
3 oz sweet orange peel @ 5

Mash @ 152 for 90

90 min boil

Appropriate sized starter of wlp410 Belgian Wit II

Ferment starting at 68 for initial fermentation raise to 72 to finish.

 

[mkyl428]

I think that will be too much coriander & orange peel. I would probably also use more flaked wheat and less white wheat. Why a 90 min boil? here is mine that turned out great for some reference.

Also I would recommend using Indian coriander if possible it has more of that citrus flavor you will be looking for.

 

[Jopilote]

I also agree that there is too much coriander and WAY to much orange peels. Both are generally used in quantities between 0.5 and 1 oz. But hey, don't be shy to experiment . As far as the grain bill is concerned, you got a pretty high wheat / pale ratio but that is not a problem since some beers are made out of 100% wheat. If I may make you a suggestion... I may want to pitch in a bit of light crystal juste to give it a straw color. Otherwise it may turn out really colorless (Speaking by experience). Also think about using rice hulls to prevent stuck sparge, this much wheat will create a concrete block in the bottom of the mash tun is not handled properly.

Why a 90 min boil ?

 

[TechyDork]

I think that will be too much coriander & orange peel. I would probably also use more flaked wheat and less white wheat. Why a 90 min boil? here is mine that turned out great for some reference.

Also I would recommend using Indian coriander if possible it has more of that citrus flavor you will be looking for.

I also agree that there is too much coriander and WAY to much orange peels. Both are generally used in quantities between 0.5 and 1 oz. But hey, don't be shy to experiment . As far as the grain bill is concerned, you got a pretty high wheat / pale ratio but that is not a problem since some beers are made out of 100% wheat. If I may make you a suggestion... I may want to pitch in a bit of light crystal juste to give it a straw color. Otherwise it may turn out really colorless (Speaking by experience). Also think about using rice hulls to prevent stuck sparge, this much wheat will create a concrete block in the bottom of the mash tun is not handled properly.

Why a 90 min boil ?

thanks for the input. I will make a few adjustments to the grain bill and post shortly. Rice hull will used in the mash for sure on this one. As for the 90 min boil that is not a necessity with this beer, but more for our system and to allow us to collect more wort from the sparge and then boil down to our final volume. We have been a little low on our OG in the past few beers and were going to try and collect more wort and boil down a bit more to see if that helped a bit.

In regards to the coriander and orange peel. We brewed this beer as an extract version a while back and in a 5g batch we used .75 oz of coriander seeds and 1.5 oz of orange peels. Though i don't recall if the coriander was cracked or not, and the orange peel was off the shelf of the grocery store spices isle. I was just doubling the spices for a 10g recipe, do you still think this would be too much?

 

[TechyDork]

Here is an updated version? how does this look compared to the original?


OG - 1.050
FG - 1.014
IBU - 17
SRM - 5

7 lb White Wheat Malt
7 lb Pale 2 Row (Bel)
1 lb Crystal 20
3 lb flaked wheat
1 lb flaked oats

2 oz EKG @ 60
1 oz coriander @ 5
3 oz sweet orange peel @ 5

Mash @ 152 for 90 (should we mash a bit higher?)

 

[TechyDork]

So after taking the input here in to account and looking at a few other recipes here is what we have. We are thinking of brewing this next week, but would still love some more input on this one.

OG - 1.051
FG - 1.014
IBU - 16
SRM - 5

10 lb Pale 2 Row (Bel)
4 lb White Wheat Malt
1 lb Crystal 20
4 lb flaked wheat
1 lb flaked oats
2 lbs rice hulls

2 oz EKG @ 60
1 oz coriander @ 5
3 oz sweet orange peel @ 5 (I know this may be higher than the norm)

Starter of WLP410 Belgian Wit II

Mash @ 152

Start ferm at 68f for 3-4 days and slowly ramp to 74 to finish.


Would love any comments or thoughts on how to improve this.

thank you.

 

[BigPerm]

So after taking the input here in to account and looking at a few other recipes here is what we have. We are thinking of brewing this next week, but would still love some more input on this one.

OG - 1.051
FG - 1.014
IBU - 16
SRM - 5

10 lb Pale 2 Row (Bel)
4 lb White Wheat Malt
1 lb Crystal 20
4 lb flaked wheat
1 lb flaked oats
2 lbs rice hulls

2 oz EKG @ 60
1 oz coriander @ 5
3 oz sweet orange peel @ 5 (I know this may be higher than the norm)

Starter of WLP410 Belgian Wit II

Mash @ 152

Start ferm at 68f for 3-4 days and slowly ramp to 74 to finish.


Would love any comments or thoughts on how to improve this.

thank you.

You've got an okay start here. I've brewed a few witbiers and I usually go with about 45% Pale malt, 45% flaked wheat and 10% flaked oats. That will give you the very pale color and light but bready body that witbier requires. If you want a traditional wit, crystal is absolutely out of place. You can always replace some of the flaked wheat with white wheat malt if you want, but you may get a little darker than you want. If you go with the flaked wheat, definitely do a 90 minute mash and drop the temp to about 150-151F. You want a dry beer, but not bone dry. My last one ended at 1.011, which I thought was going to be on the sweet side but ended up being pretty perfect.

2 lbs of rice hulls is probably overkill, but if you've got space in the tun, go for it. If you use enough, you wont stick and thats important.

I won't comment on the spices, except to say that I always err on the lighter side. I know its not really traditional, but I don't use coriander in my wits anymore because if you overdo it the flavor can be dominating. And don't use the dried orange peel crap. Zest a few fresh oranges (washed, of course) and throw them in with a few minutes left in the boil. You'll get a wonderful fresh flavor that you cant get with the bagged stuff at the LHBS. FWIW, the last one I made used fresh clementine peel, lavender and chamomile and turned out great.

Good luck!

 

[TechyDork]

BigPerm, thanks for your input. Looks like I need to review a bit and come up with a more solid recipe.

I like the simplicity of your grain bill. I may tweak it a bit just to make it my own. Do you target the same 16-20 IBU range? Is there a hop you find best suites this style?

I like the fresh peel idea over the dried. Definitely going for that.




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[brettwasbtd]

+1 to what BigPerm said. I just did a wit with 50% Belgian pils and 50% flaked wheat and it came out great. The yeast and your spice additions are what make a wit nice and refreshing. Using the rager formula I try to get between 20-25 IBU

 

[mkyl428]

What they ^^^^^ said, Witbier is a very simple style here look at this it helped me a lot when I designed mine. http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/11/02/belgian-wit-recipes-%E2%80%93-white-beer-styles/

I won't comment on the spices, except to say that I always err on the lighter side.

+1000 to this^ if you are light on the spices you can always add more later it's much harder to try and take some away.


here is some advice given to me by another HBT member that helped me w/ spicing too.

Sweet and bitter orange peel have different characteristics. Sweet orange peel gives you the characteristic orange scent you're familiar with while bitter orange peel gives an earthy, herbal citrus character commonly found in liquors like Gran Marnier. IMO, they are not substitutes for each other.

Coriander can be a problem of it's own. Old coriander, and some varieties, have a celery- and/or ham-like characteristics which is often times people attribute to a soup flavor. I would also recommend using Indian Coriander (shaped more like a football than soccer ball) because it's extremely citrusy.

When making a classic witbier, the coriander typically provides the citrus character while the bitter orange peel provides more of the herbal character. Counter-intuitive as it may be.

 

[TechyDork]

thanks everyone for the suggestions. After some more reading and your suggestions here is what i have.

OG - 1.050
FG - 1.012
IBU - 16
SRM - 4

10 lb Pale 2 Row (Bel)
8 lb flaked wheat
2 lb flaked oats
1 lbs rice hulls

2 oz EKG @ 60
.75 oz coriander @ 5
2 oz fresh orange zest @ 5

Starter of WLP410 Belgian Wit II

Mash @ 151 for 90 min

 

[mkyl428]

That sounds good to me

Brew it up, let us know how it turns out!

 

[BigPerm]

thanks everyone for the suggestions. After some more reading and your suggestions here is what i have.

OG - 1.050
FG - 1.012
IBU - 16
SRM - 4

10 lb Pale 2 Row (Bel)
8 lb flaked wheat
2 lb flaked oats
1 lbs rice hulls

2 oz EKG @ 60
.75 oz coriander @ 5
2 oz fresh orange zest @ 5

Starter of WLP410 Belgian Wit II

Mash @ 151 for 90 min

looks like a nice witbier. cheers!

 

[TechyDork]

looks like a nice witbier. cheers!

Thank you and everyone for all of your input. I will be sure to post the results.