BeerBorg

Yesterday, I brewed the MB Wild Wheat recipie, only I made a few modifications.

I really enjoy a good Belgian White/Witbier and I've been planning this for a few weeks now.

Instead of using the yeast that comes with that recipe, I used Wyeast Witbier 3944 yeast and added .5 tsp of chopped coriander seeds and the zest of 1 orange.


Everything went pretty well and my beer is now sitting comfortable at 68*F in a cooler in the basement. I plan to let this ferment for 3 weeks and then I'll bottle condition into recycled 12 oz. bottles.


I plan to batch prime using corn sugar. I'm not sure how much carbonation I need. My previous two MB brews were a little under-carbonated for my tastes. Any suggestions?

How much sugar have you been using? Are you batch priming or bottle priming?

For the style... I personally find that BJCP guidelines for any sort of Belgian beer are arbitrary nonsense, and most can be carbed far higher then BJCP says is "in style" and you can find commercial beers to prove it. As long as you've got good bottles that is (said commercial beers come in thick walled Belgian bottles). If your using PETs you have no worries, but if using American Micro glass bottles I'd not carb at really high volumes.

mashani wrote:How much sugar have you been using? Are you batch priming or bottle priming?

For the style... I personally find that BJCP guidelines for any sort of Belgian beer are arbitrary nonsense, and most can be carbed far higher then BJCP says is "in style" and you can find commercial beers to prove it. As long as you've got good bottles that is (said commercial beers come in thick walled Belgian bottles). If your using PETs you have no worries, but if using American Micro glass bottles I'd not carb at really high volumes.

I don't really know how much sugar I've been using. I guess I should start taking notes or a log book.

I plan to batch prime into one of the slim-line containers and then bottle from there. I'm planning to be using 12oz bottles from Harpoon, Saranac, Long Trail, etc... I don't like the MB 1L PET bottles.

Hard to say what's wrong if you don't know how much you used...

Use a calculator like this to figure how much you should use if batch priming and trying to target a specific CO2 volume.

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

You can go above the suggested levels for any Belgian IMHO, but I'd not go really high unless you are using glass bottles that came from a beer that you know was carbed that high to begin with.

My beer looks like its doing well. Temps are holding between 65-70 and it smells wonderful.

Mashani is oh so right on bottles and I can tell you from experience that you do NOT want bottle bombs. If the bottles you are planning on using were not for the same carb level/beer style you should not carb to high.

If your last two MB batches were under carbed AND you used the MB instructions that would be interesting as the general opinion is they have their recipes over-carbed on average.

And I absolutely recommend that you keep notes on every brew from recipe design to brew day and right on through to tasting notes until the last bottle is gone. you will not regret the extra effort down the road when you need/want to refer back to a particular brew day.

Love the yeast party pic and it sounds like you've got a tasty one on the way.

Brewbirds wrote:Mashani is oh so right on bottles and I can tell you from experience that you do NOT want bottle bombs. If the bottles you are planning on using were not for the same carb level/beer style you should not carb to high.

If your last two MB batches were under carbed AND you used the MB instructions that would be interesting as the general opinion is they have their recipes over-carbed on average.

And I absolutely recommend that you keep notes on every brew from recipe design to brew day and right on through to tasting notes until the last bottle is gone. you will not regret the extra effort down the road when you need/want to refer back to a particular brew day.

Love the yeast party pic and it sounds like you've got a tasty one on the way.

Thanks Brewbirds. I've really spent a lot of time planning my Witbier. Maybe I'll order two cases of bottles. I've already de-labeled the bottles so I'd have no idea what was in them previously.

Thanks Brewbirds. I've really spent a lot of time planning my Witbier. Maybe I'll order two cases of bottles. I've already de-labeled the bottles so I'd have no idea what was in them previously.

If you find a place where you can order the Belgian style bottles; very thick glass, bomber style that use corks and wire harnesses please post as I'd like to get some also for my saisons.

This is what I had to clean up after when I had bad/weak/flawed bottles mixed into one of my Craig's List scores.




And why I would recommend the Belgian style when you want or brew a highly carbed beer. Here is a pic of a big, heavy "Belgian" type bottle.

Root Skier wrote:My beer looks like its doing well. Temps are holding between 65-70 and it smells wonderful.

Makes me wanna cry when I see a beauty like that or like this:

Success! Bottled the beer today. Its pretty darn close to the flavor I was shooting for which was a strong/double witbier. Judging on mouthfeel, I'd say it's in the 6.5-7.5 range.

I finally sampled one this past weekend. What a good brew I made. It tastes nothing like a double wit (more like a strong belgian golden ale) but I'm very happy with the flavor and carbonation.

Sounds absolutely yummy!

Glad it turned into good beer, even if it's not what you thought it would be.

Thanks. I think it just needs more orange rind and coriander. It's got a nice Belgian flavor from the witbier yeast.

I should really wait to taste the beers before I name them and make a label.

Looks great. I have an orange wheat conditioning now. I used sweetened orange peel. 1/2 oz in the fermentor with wort. I tasted it 2 1/2 weeks in and it was a little bitter. I than cold crashed it for 1 week, so Put 1/2 oz more in when it was cold crashing. Hopefully cut a little bitterness, it may add some more orange flavor too.