Cranberry Witbier - 2008 Longshot clone (BYO recipe...kind of)

**jaycount** · 10-30-2011, 11:22 PM

http://www.byo.com/stories/recipeindex/article/recipes/102-fruit-beer/2015-carissa-sweigarts-cranberry-wit

Whoever wrote up this recipe was on drugs so I had to do a little bit of interpretation

#1: Regarding the boil and the hops schedule... I did a 60 minute boil (All grain, I needed to boil down to volume) with the following hops schedule:
1 oz Sterling @ 20 minutes
1 oz Goldings @ 5 minutes

.50 tbsp cinnamon, .25 oz Bitter OP, .35oz GOP, 1 tsp coriander all @ flameout

#2: I used the Belgian Witbier yeast. I don't know if they intended for us to use both or either or what.

This beer is currently in primary, it's at the end of the primary stage and ready for the addition of K-sorbate, K-metabisulfate, and the cranberry juice. I tasted my gravity check the other day and it is ok, kind of bland but the cranberry juice should take care of that.

So, this leads me to #3: How am I going to put in a hit on these yeast to allow the addition of cranberry juice? The BYO recipe suggests 2 tbsps of each which is alot in comparison to what I read on here for wines (1-2 tsp). Since this is beer, is it any different? Should I add the K-sorbate and K-meta to the primary and let it sit for a day then rack to the keg or add the k-sorbate and k-meta in the keg? Either way I've heard I should let it sit for a day or so before adding the fermentables (juice).

**jaycount** · 10-31-2011, 11:32 PM

I kegged today and added 1/4 tsp of K-meta and 2.5 tsp of K-sorbate to the keg. I hooked it up to my co2 then unhooked it and gave it some good shakes to help mix it.

I will wait a few days before adding the cranberry juice.

theschick · 02-19-2012, 11:48 PM

How did this turn out? I came across the original recipe, and curious about it.

**jaycount** · 02-20-2012, 03:00 AM

It was ok. When I do it again I'll decrease the cranberry juice to about 1.5-2L.

More importantly, I'd make sure to ferment warmer to bring out some of the witbier esters from the yeast. I only did it at about 62 degrees and it was just a boring, bland witbier to begin with. After adding the cranberry juice it was way over powered by the juice.