Belgian Wit Advice

O I've decided to make a basic wit to get the pipeline flowing again. However I've not made one in a couple years and would like some opinions on the recipe before I hit the LHBS.

5 gallon all grain

4.5# pils
4.5# white wheat
1# flaked oats
1/2# rice hulls
1 oz hallertau
1/2 oz bitter orange
1/2 oz coriander
Zest from 1 sweet orange
Either use white labs Belgian wit or t-58 (whatever they have)

Mash 3 gallons water 30 minutes at 125
add 4 gallons and mash 1 hour at 155
Boil 1 gallon water, add to mash for 10 minutes.

1/2 oz hallertau at 60 minutes
1/2 oz hallertau at 30 minutes
Orange and coriander at flameout

Thoughts? I'm using up the coriander and bitter orange from previous brews, enough or should I get more? Does my mash look OK?

Thanks in advance

looks like a wit to me.

some might say more zest or coriander, up to an ounce of each, but that's just a taste call. 1/2 oz of each is definitely within spec.

I might try this recipe, sounds great! Is the wheat malted?

Yes, white wheat is usually malted.

I prefer 50% unmalted wheat in my Witbier and so does the BJCP

http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style16.php#1a

However, I know a lot of people (on these boards at least) prefer to use malted wheat.

Also, I would use 2x as much orange as coriander. The coriander can overpower the orange in my experience.

I'd drop the coriander and orange a bit unless you want everyone to know there's a butt load of orange peel in there. I made a bitter orange peel wit not long ago and it's intense on the orange. I should have used half as much and I used .25oz per gallon of frozen fresh grated peel. So if you're using dried you get even more zest for the weight since mine as wet as hell. I like mine a little more balanced and don't like them tasting like a orange peel with a dash of wit beer.

My experience with orange peel is contrary to Smokinghole's. I have found that I get much more aroma and flavor from fresh peel than I do from dried. My guess is that the compounds responsible for aromatic and flavor qualities are extremely volatile and are driven off in the drying process; but that's just a guess.

So you're saying to bump the dried peel up? I only ever used it once I think a long time ago. I've since just went with fresh zest since I only brew 10 gal at a time. It's not like a brewery that's making 100bbl.

I usually use 2-3 times the orange peel to coriander. But, I use fresh zest now also. I think it works much better.