Belgian White suggestions

Planning on doing a wit in the next week or two and was looking for some suggestions on a partial mash. My base is going to have to be extract and I'm thinking its going to be 6.6 lbs of wheat extract.

So, what are some suggestions on proportions of unmalted wheat to my conversion grain? Should I use oats too or worry about that some other time?

I've made the austin homebrew wit kit a couple times and it is excellent. You could look at their website for the ingredient list.

I made a batch of a Blanche de Bruges clone that used oats and it was fantastic as well. I don't have the recipe because that book is out on loan.

The book I *do* have in front of me has a Hoegaarden clone recipe. 8 oz flaked wheat, 4 oz flaked oats, 8 oz aromatic and 4 oz of hulls in the steep, then 5.5 lb wheat DME.

The facing page has a Celis white clone: 4 oz flaked wheat, 4 oz aromatic in the steep, then 3.3 pale DME and 2.3 lb wheat DME.

If you figure those two are on opposite ends of the spectrum, almost anything in between will give you a good wit.

B3 Mini-Mash Recipe Collection
Witbier
This is the morebeer recipe that i brewed several times before. If you are looking for a Blue Moon clone this won't work out. It is however a definit thirst quencher. I think you may be adding too much wheat extract. Also, the oats aid with providing good head... no pun intended

6lbs Ultralight Malt

2.5lbs 2 Row
1.5lbs Flaked wheat
1lb Flaked oats

1oz Hallertauer 60min
1oz Czech Saaz 1min

1oz coriander seed
1oz bitter orange peel

4oz corn sugar

White Labs - Belgian Wit Ale

I think you're on the right track using Wheat LME as your base. If it's Briess, it's 65/35 wheat/barley, which is a good proportion for Wit. If you do a mini-mash with 2 lbs of Pilsner malt and a pound each of flaked wheat and flaked oats, you're pretty much done.

For really cool authenticity, add a very small amount of lactic acid to the mash, or use 4 oz of acidulated malt in your mini-mash. Gives a very authentic twang to the finished beer.

Keep your hops noble, and restrict yourself to one addition, bittering only, for a relatively low IBU (~10-12). Flavor hops will clash with the spices if you're using the spices correctly.

Cheers!

Bob

Yeah....what Bob said!!

Personally, if I used the acidulated malt I would use closer to 2 oz. (50 grams). 4 oz. would work too, but that is some powerful stuff!!! (try tasting a grain on it's own!).

D'oh! Nice catch, Mr Supper. I meant to write '2', but my pre-coffee brain made the fingers type '4'.

:facepalm:

Well i put 4oz of acid malt into my all grain batch today. we'll see how it goes...

Sweet, thanks for the suggestions. I'm seeing a lot of flaked wheat mentioned here and everything I've read has said that unmalted wheat is traditional. Difference???

I use 8 oz of acidulated malt in my Wit, and am thinking about going even higher next time I brew it. What can I say, I like sour beers This doesn't really even come out sour, just a subtle tang in the background.

Flaked wheat is unmalted, just in a different form. The flaking process gelatinizes it, so you can mash without needing to boil it first.

emacgee said:

Planning on doing a wit in the next week or two and was looking for some suggestions on a partial mash. My base is going to have to be extract and I'm thinking its going to be 6.6 lbs of wheat extract.

So, what are some suggestions on proportions of unmalted wheat to my conversion grain? Should I use oats too or worry about that some other time?

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My suggestion would be to skip the oats. I tried a Wit with oats a couple of months ago, thought it would be really good but as it turned out it wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting. Next time I will just skip the oats.

Mutilated1 said:

My suggestion would be to skip the oats. I tried a Wit with oats a couple of months ago, thought it would be really good but as it turned out it wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting. Next time I will just skip the oats.

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Was it not as good because it had oats in it? Had you brewed the exact recipe before without oats and then this one with oats and noticed a marked difference between the two?

emacgee said:

Was it not as good because it had oats in it? Had you brewed the exact recipe before without oats and then this one with oats and noticed a marked difference between the two?

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Yes, it was not as good with the oats in it.

I didn't like it as much anyway.

Alrighty, now I'm starting to consider yeasts. I know I have a basic Belgian Wit yeast available. I've heard good things about the Wyeast Forbidden Fruit and then my LHBS guy told me to definitely not use it. Conflicting. Any advice from people who have used either?

I use WLP400 with great results, and can highly recommend it.

I haven't tried Forbidden Fruit or WLP410, so can't really compare.

I've made three tasty batches of Wit using Wyeast 3944. Rumor has it, that yeast makes a good gruit too.

Forbidden Fruit has always made an excellent Wit in my brewery.

Bob

Grabbed some torrified wheat, flaked oats, and acidulated malt today to get this baby going. LHBS owner told me I could steep all of those grains....I am almost 100% positive I cannot get away with a steep on oats and wheat, not sure about the acidulated malt. I'm planning 1lb wheat and probably half a pound of oats. How much base malt should I use to convert those with in the mini mash?

LHBS owner is wrong Wheat, oats, and acid malt all need to be mashed.

None of these have any diastatic power, so you will need a decent amount of base malt to convert them. A couple of pounds should do the job.

If you don't add any base malt, you'll extract some starches and stuff out of them but not actually mash the wheat/oats. All of my wits have been steeps (not mini-mashes) with DME added later, and they came out fine.