Witbier At My Wit's End.

This recipe pushes gravity and IBU envelop for the belgian wit style of beer. I have just tapped the keg after being cold for 4 weeks and have decided I need to make 10 gallons for summer drinking. This is a 5 gallon recipe that I did a BIAB session to make.

4.5 lbs pale malt or 2-row
4.5 lbs white wheat
8 oz flaked wheat
0.5 oz sterling hops 60 min
0.5 oz sterling hops at 30 min
0.5 oz sterling hops 15 min
0.5 oz sterling hops 0 min
0.4 oz corriander seed 5 min
0.4 oz sweet orange peel 5 min
0.4 oz bitter orange peel 5 min

Beligian wit yeast

Sounds delicious! Is this 5 gallons?

Ostomo517 said:

Sounds delicious! Is this 5 gallons?

Click to expand...

Yep. I mashed at 152 F for 60 minutes.

Cool thanks for the recipe, been wanting to get a Wit started like you said for summertime. I may turn up the coriander and orange a bit but otherwise looks great!

Ostomo517 said:

Cool thanks for the recipe, been wanting to get a Wit started like you said for summertime. I may turn up the coriander and orange a bit but otherwise looks great!

Click to expand...

I agree about increasing the amount of corriander and orange peel for the next brew session. I am also thinking about adding 4 oz of honey malt or crystal 40 or 60 to make the color a little darker/deeper.

Finally gonna brew this in two days (had a few other brews in line before this) excited about it. Gonna go with .75 oz coriander (you think thats too much?) and a bit more orange peel. Also a touch of nutmeg. I will report back on my progress

Edit: I also went with the 4oz of honey malt

I agree with the increase of the coriander to 0.75 oz and increasing the orange peel. Are you planning on crushing the coriander prior to adding it to the beer?

I like the idea of a touch of nutmeg. Next I am going to add a few grams of crushed grains of paradise to the boil at 5 min.

Hope it turns out well for you.

Yeah crushed coriander

Just took fg sample. Came down to 1.004 with WLP400 wit yeast. Tastes great with a little Belgian funk. Bottling tomorrow. Will get back to you on all the tweeks I made in my version

Fuzzymittenbrewing said:

Just took fg sample. Came down to 1.004 with WLP400 wit yeast. Tastes great with a little Belgian funk. Bottling tomorrow. Will get back to you on all the tweeks I made in my version

View attachment 132990

Click to expand...

I am looking forward to hearing about your version. I hope to make this again at the end of July with using some other brewer's changes.

Four days after bottling and can't wait anymore!!! Here it is. My changes were as follows. 1/2 oz of bitter and 1/2 oz sweet orange at 15 1/4 oz each at 2 min. 1/2oz coriander at 15 1/4 oz at 2. 1/8 tsp nutmeg at 15 1/8 tsp at 2. The orange really shines through! The WLP400 gave it a little funk as well, the spices are a great touch. Thanks for the recipe!

Fuzzymittenbrewing said:

Four days after bottling and can't wait anymore!!! Here it is. My changes were as follows. 1/2 oz of bitter and 1/2 oz sweet orange at 15 1/4 oz each at 2 min. 1/2oz coriander at 15 1/4 oz at 2. 1/8 tsp nutmeg at 15 1/8 tsp at 2. The orange really shines through! The WLP400 gave it a little funk as well, the spices are a great touch. Thanks for the recipe!

View attachment 133739

Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing your changes. I look forward to trying this new version later in the summer. I like the increase in the amounts of orange and coriander as well as breaking these into different times for their additions.

I was having one now and realized I forgot to also mention I did add the 4oz of honey malt. Obviously helped the color but also is giving a heavenly hint of honey to the aroma .

Fuzzymittenbrewing said:

I was having one now and realized I forgot to also mention I did add the 4oz of honey malt. Obviously helped the color but also is giving a heavenly hint of honey to the aroma .

Click to expand...

I am going to brew this again in a few weeks. Do you have any more suggestions for changes to your version of the recipe?

No, I'm rebrewing soon and leaving it the same

Fuzzymittenbrewing said:

No, I'm rebrewing soon and leaving it the same

Click to expand...

I was thinking of either using some seeds/grains of paradise or nutmeg in my batch. Are you satisfied with the amount of nutmeg you are using?

msa8967 said:

I was thinking of either using some seeds/grains of paradise or nutmeg in my batch. Are you satisfied with the amount of nutmeg you are using?

Click to expand...

Yeah it was a good amount IMO. I'd be interested in trying the grains of paradise though.

Brewing this modified recipe on Friday!!!
The only difference is that I am going to pitch with harvested WY1214.
It says on the Wyeast site that it can be used in Wits, but I have yet to find a recipe that calls out for it. My guess is that the wit strains would produce less less of those spicy/ester/phenols - that I'm so fond of.

Would you think that the extra funk I like will still work with the orange/spice additions?

View attachment 211838
Welp, got my harvested 1214 in a healthy starter, so I'm just going for it..


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

How what your body in this recipe? The glass looks great. Going to be making a traditional on today myself pitching the Wyeast and sticking with coriander and orange only. Used powdered coriander last time and will again but am drastically pulling back to only have a hint and not a bomb like I did last round. I like your timing on the additions though and will probably do something similar with this batch.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Whet was the %alpha of your sterling hops? I put in beer smith and got an ibu way out of the normal range.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

AndyMac81 said:

Whet was the %alpha of your sterling hops? I put in beer smith and got an ibu way out of the normal range.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Click to expand...

I use Sterling hops at about 6%. This gives 22.9 IBUs which is just slightly above the 20 ibu max range posted in my beersmith recipe for this style.