1st

[wollffy]

Critique for my first ag recipe will be apprecited Borg.
witbierbog
Recipe witbierbog Style Witbier
Brewer ab Batch 5.00 gal
All Grain
Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Gravity 1.059 OG Estimated FG 1.015 FG
Recipe Bitterness 14 IBU Alcohol by Volume 5.7%
Recipe Color 4° SRM Alcohol by Weight 4.5%
Ingredients
Quantity Grain Type Use
5.00 lb Belgian pilsener Grain Mashed
0.50 lb CaraPils Grain Mashed
0.50 lb Flaked oats Adjunct Mashed
5.00 lb Torrified wheat Adjunct Mashed
Quantity Hop Type Time
0.50 oz Centennial Pellet 7 minutes
1.00 oz Centennial Pellet 15 minutes
Quantity Misc Notes
1.00 unit Belgian Witbier yeast Yeast
0.50 unit Corriander Seed Spice
0.50 unit Orange Peel, Bitter Flavor
0.50 unit Orange Peel, Sweet Spice
Recipe Notes
Batch Notes

[jimjohson]

if your wanting to stay in style then a witbier is 1.044-1.052. your going to have to boil the pilsner for 90 min any way. why not do a bitter boil with some of the hops? (30 min +) you'll get more "mileage" out of the hops

[BlackDuck]

Jim has a good point on the bittering boil. A lot of Wit recipes that I've seen don't use a flavor or aroma hop addition, just a bittering addition. The flavor and aroma is left for what the yeast and spices offer. And is there a specific reason your choosing torrified what over white wheat malt? I'm not familiar with torrified wheat, so I'm curious here. And what time frames are you adding the spices to the boil?

[russki]

Jim has a good point on the bittering boil. A lot of Wit recipes that I've seen don't use a flavor or aroma hop addition, just a bittering addition. The flavor and aroma is left for what the yeast and spices offer.

This. Instead of all the late Centennial (which is completely out of style for a Wit), use an ounce of Hallertau or another noble low-IBU hop @60 min (for ~18-20 IBUs). You want neutral bittering that will allow orange peel and coriander to be front and center. And as others have mentioned, you will need to boil it for 90 min to get rid of DMS precursors in Pilsener malt.

[dbrowning]

 And is there a specific reason your choosing torrified what over white wheat malt? I'm not familiar with torrified wheat, so I'm curious here.


Style calls for 50% unmalted wheat.
Recipes I see that actually sick to guidelines use torrified

[haerbob3]

First Wort Hopping is an excellent technique for the Belgium style beers. It gives you a more balanced bittering. Myself the only time I used wheat flakes was with extract brews. With this being you first AG I would add some rice hulls to this to prevent a stuck sparge. I would also replace the carapils with Munich malt, go with FWH, and use only a single hop charge. The spices I would add the last 5 to 10 mins.

1. what kind of sparge are you going to do, or is this BIAB?

[mashani]

An authentic Wit beer should have unmalted grain like unmalted wheat or oats so I think the torrified wheat and flaked oats are fine as an adjunct. The torrified wheat and flaked wheat/oats are a lot easier to convert in a single infusion mash then plain unmalted wheat or oats. I would not mash those without doing a step mash. So I see no problems with this adjunct.

[wollffy]

Thanks for all the input and questions Borg. I will be addressing
Some changes later when I have the qbrew. And Ofcourse ask more questions.

[wollffy]

Borg,
Im not to concerned with style at this point. I am grateful about the knowledge of longer boil for belgian pilsner. I was totally unsure about hops, so I was trying to accentuate the orange and coriander. Point taken, thinking about Mt. Hood. I also was curious about Vienna in this HaerBob, and I am planning a batch sparge. I read torrified wheat was more easily converted Black Duck, DBrowning. IDK, I'm a newb.
Mashani, your knowledge is inspiring! All you Brewers are going to help me make Great Beer!
My Brew Demon frees up this weekend so I'm thinking I will try this in a 2.5 and try to come up with another recipe for the larger batch.
I am thinking a little more simple for the larger quantity. Do you all think a SMASH is a good way to go. What class of beer is a smash anyway, APA?
Thanks all..

[mashani]

A SMaSH can be many things from a style standpoint, depending on what you use, but it simply means Single Malt Single Hop.

So say you brew 4 small batches with the same clean yeast like a Kolsch or German or American Ale yeast (S-05 or the like). You don't *need* to use a clean yeast, but it helps if you are doing the SMaSH to understand the grains or hops.

So say you do it with 2-row pale malt, Saaz, yeast.
Then you do it with Vienna, Saaz, same yeast.
Then you do it with 2-row pale malt, Cascade, same yeast.
Then you do it with Vienna, Cascade, same yeast.

This gives you the ability to see exactly what those malts and those hops bring to the party, you can compare the batches with the same hops to get an understanding of the malt, and the ones with the same malt to get an understanding of the hops.

I just picked those grains and hops at random. (but those would make good beer). You can also brew a bunch of batches with the same malt and hops, and change up the yeast to some Belgian or English version to see how the yeast affects the beer. That will show you what a clean yeast vs. an estery or phenolic yeast changes.

It's one of the best ways to really understand the ingredients.

[wollffy]

Sounds like an excellent way to Learn.
Thanks Mashani.

[wollffy]

Brewed this up as a 2.5 today all grain.
OG 1.042. Changed up to 60 min. Mt. Hood and
Vienna in place of carapils.