BeerBorg

After brewing a California Common, an Irish Stout and before brewing another IPA I've decided my next brewday will be focused on a Wheat Beer. I haven't brewed a Belgian Witbier in quite a while because of all the American Wheat beers I'd been brewing. But this time I'm going all in on style, yeast, grains and water profile. I'm even considering doing a mutli-step mash for the very first time including a mash out step.

I'm still putting together the grain bill and other ingredients but it'll definitely have some bitter orange, a pinch of crushed coriander seed and Grains of Paradise for spice and flavor with White Labs WLP400 - Belgian Wit Ale Yeast™ for fermentation.

FWIW, I like a little bit of sweet orange in mine too.

I'm going to be making an AG Roggenbier really soon. Think German wheat beer except 60% rye instead of 60% wheat, with some Pale, Munich, and a bit of crystal malts.

Since I'm BIABing it, I am not anticipating any mash trouble, but with a lot of wheat/unmalted wheat in your case (if you are going authentic in your WIT you need some unmalted wheat) you might run into sparge trouble. Don't know how your new system works in that regards.

Your right I am going to take some time to think this through. I'm seeing that fresh tangerine rinds are better than the dried orange peels I've used for years. I've only ever used Flaked Rye in my rye ale recipes never used Malted Rye before.

I've used Pilsener (Belgian) and Wheat (German) malts together with Munich (German) malt and Flaked Wheat in my Igloo cooler tun and never had a stuck mash with it.

I'm still trying to get the percentages right in my head, but I think I used a 60/40 mix of Pilsener and Wheat Malt to make up 80% of the grain bill with the remaining 20% made up of Flaked Wheat and Munich Malt. As far as how my new system will handle those grains I'm thinking that the 1.5 to 1.75 mash thickness works in my favor.

I remember adding a container full of Pilsener and then a container full of malted wheat until the malted wheat ran out then adding in the Munich and the rest of the Pilsener malts and then adding the flaked wheat and just leaving it on top of them. After loading the Igloo mash tun that way I stopped using rice hulls because there was no need for them. I'm going to spend some time researching this style and recipe since I don't plan to brew it until early November but when I do brew it I want it to be the best Belgian Witbier ever.

Here's to Pierre Celis for reviving the style and his Hoegaards Bier, or as we know it in the United States his Hoegaarden label!

Screwy, Below is a recipe that I made along with one of my homebrew club buddies. It's based on Bell's Oberon Ale recipe. I've made it several times and each time it disappears way too quickly from my pipeline. You will notice that there's no orange peel or other citrus additions to the recipe but it still has a very nice citrusy flavor to it.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
24.6 L 60 min 28.7 IBUs 5.3 SRM 1.055 SG 1.014 SG 5.4 %

Style Details
Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American Wheat or Rye Beer 6 D 1.04 - 1.055 1.008 - 1.013 15 - 30 3 - 6 2.3 - 2.6 4 - 5.5 %
Fermentables

Name Amount %
Briess ~Two (2) Row 4.159 kg 58.13
White Wheat Malt 2.773 kg 38.75
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L 0.223 kg 3.11

Hops
Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Hallertauer 28.3 g 60 min Boil Pellet 4.8
Hallertauer 28.3 g 30 min Boil Pellet 4.8
Saaz 28.3 g 10 min Boil Pellet 3


Name Amount Time Use Type
Yeast Nutrient ~ Wyeast 0.75 tsp 10 min Boil Other
Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
BRY-97 () Danstar 75% 17.78°C - 20.56°C

Flaked wheat is easiest to work with in a single infusion mash WIT beer, but for an authentic step decoction mash the old world Belgian grain bills are something along these lines:

55% Pilsner/pale 2-row
40% Unmalted Wheat
5% Unmalted Oats

You can't use those ingredients without a long complicated mash schedule though.

But your new setup I think can be programmed to do that kind of thing I think. You could throw in a little bit of 6 row to help out too.

For a BIAB, I have use flaked wheat, flaked oats and Belgian Pilsner with good results (note that I went with a 90 minute mash as Belgian Pilsner tends to have a bit less enzymatic power then American 2-row and there is a lot of stuff that needs to be converted... but some of it still will not be - which is what makes it white colored/translucent... if you use too much malted wheat instead of flaked/unmalted then it will end up clearish, and not taste quite like a real WIT beer).

EDIT: @Louie - that recipe sounds good, but it's not a WIT beer.

mashani wrote:Flaked wheat is easiest to work with in a single infusion mash WIT beer, but for an authentic step decoction mash the old world Belgian grain bills are something along these lines:

55% Pilsner/pale 2-row
40% Unmalted Wheat
5% Unmalted Oats

You can't use those ingredients without a long complicated mash schedule though.

But your new setup I think can be programmed to do that kind of thing I think. You could throw in a little bit of 6 row to help out too.

For a BIAB, I have use flaked wheat, flaked oats and Belgian Pilsner with good results (note that I went with a 90 minute mash as Belgian Pilsner tends to have a bit less enzymatic power then American 2-row and there is a lot of stuff that needs to be converted... but some of it still will not be - which is what makes it white colored/translucent... if you use too much malted wheat instead of flaked/unmalted then it will end up clearish, and not taste quite like a real WIT beer).

EDIT: @Louie - that recipe sounds good, but it's not a WIT beer.

I know it's not a WIT but the original title refers to "A Wheat Beer" and this one is certainly that, so I thought I'd share.

FWIW, if you can find Saphire hops you can use a little for some aroma. They give off a nice tangerine smell and i'm sure if you add them in around 10 minutes left you might get some of that flavor as well. I used them once and found them to be a very nice hop.

Thanks guys I appreciate everyone's input on the subject of Wheat styles, they're one of my favorites. In hindsight I probably decided on a Witbier sub-style before I remembered to change the title of this post. I've used malted and flaked wheat, Pilsener, Munich and flaked oats in my American Wheat recipes too, at this point I'm calculating ingredient percentages, mash thickness and potential for a stuck mash because I've never brewed a batch on my new system.

I guess I can keep referring to it as my new system as long as I'm not brewing a recipe I've never brewed on it before. My research continues, spurred on by The Borg's much valued help.

I have the grain bill locked down for a 10 gallon batch and the hop additions, according to what I've been able to find online. I haven't gotten to the details of the stepped mash or water profile adjustments yet but I wanted to get some feedback on the grains and hops selected so far. The pitch rate is close to 400 billion cells of WLP-400 for the batch size and I'll make the starters earlier in the week, about five days before brew day.

Size 10.50 gallons @ 70% efficiency: Style: Witbier [Belgian]
Estimated OG=1.053, IBU=20, SRM=4, FG=1.013, ABV= 5.1%

10.00 pounds Pilsener (Belgian)
09.00 pounds Flaked Wheat [Unmalted]
02.00 pounds Flaked Oats [Unmalted]
01.00 pound Munich (German)

03.00 ounces of Hallertauer (Germany) add an ounce each at 90, 60 and 30 minutes.

Random thoughts:

The hops sound fine to me as long as they are in the 3.n% AA range.

Munich in a WIT is not typical, however I like Munich in anything. But I'd consider the amount you are using to be maxed out, as you don't want noticeable "malty" in an authentic WIT. A tiny bit of nutty/bready vibe might be nice though, IE it might give you some decoction mash flavor simulation effect, so I won't say "take it out". But it should be more tart then malty.

Your grain bill has a more unmalted grains then in most traditional WITs - usually they are more then 50% pils/2-row/etc, less then 50% unmalted wheat/oats (unmalted being important) - however since you are using flaked grains they should convert more easily (they have basically been cereal mashed for you, and then turned into a shape that allows for easy access to the starches), so I think it will be ok.

The Munich came into the picture after reading a Witbier article in BYO Magazine to add melanoidin for malt complexity. Taking your advice I decided to reduce the Munich by half and increase the total grain bill to 23 pounds so the percentages and pounds convert easily.

Size 10.50 gallons @ 70% efficiency: Style: Witbier [Belgian]
Estimated OG=1.055, IBU=15, SRM=4, FG=1.014, ABV= 5.4%

(50.%) - 11.50 pounds Pilsener (Belgian)
(40.%) - 09.25 pounds Flaked Wheat [Unmalted]
(7.5%) - 01.75 pounds Flaked Oats [Unmalted]
(2.5%) - 00.50 pound Munich (German)

I used 4.4% alpha acid in the hops, but I'll adjust the percentage up or down once I buy them, the IBU range for the style is 10-20 so I'm going to target 15 IBUs.

Now with all the months of careful planning a system capable of brewing ten gallon batches I'm facing one more challenge, although it's a good one, where to put all the beer? With about 17 gallons of beer in bottles and kegs and no basement I guess I won't be able to brew my Witbier until I can convince SWMBO and myself there's a place to store another ten gallons of beer.

It may seem like a silly question but I've never been faced with this problem before, does anyone ever store their bottled or kegged beer at room temperature for months at a time?

I keep all my bottled beer stored at room temp until I want to drink it. I have a big 750 mL bottle of St Sebastian Tripel that has been sitting at room temp for a year. Other bottles of that beer have sat at room temp, and have never had adverse effects on the taste. I just keep them in the dark to avoid skunking.

Vince, maybe you and your wife can compromise on just 5 gallons instead of 10. Make her feel like you're giving up something in return.
Good luck with that.

Haha, Good one, you married folks know that's basically impossible. As for keeping the beer at room temperature for months on end I like that idea, a lot. It's nice to know that me and my beer can be kept in the dark together now.