Alright, putting together a recipe for a Belgian White and I had a few questions.
A) Is it possible to steep any form of wheat? I read one recipe that mentioned flaked wheat, Im not able to do any form of mashing and would like to include some real wheat if possible.
B) Yeast. Better to buy one or make a starter from a bottle?
C) How do most people use their orange peel?
Others have gone through the mashing thing. Witbier is not a beer one can really do justice without mashing. Is it possible to brew Witbier with extract? Yes. I've done it. It's just that wheat/barley is too simple a grist, and the other ingredients - which add a
ton of character - simply must be mashed. The award-winning Witbier I used to brew professionally had Pilsner malt, wheat malt, raw wheat, Torrefied wheat, flaked oats and a crapton of rice hulls in the mash. You don't have to go that nuts; all I'm trying to say is that the complex grist was far superior to the first attempt, which was simply 2-row and wheat malt.
The right yeast is crucial to the style. If you can successfully culture from a bottle, knock yourself out! Caveat: Breweries often bottle-condition with a different strain than is used in the ferment. I prefer Wyeast's culture, myself, but YMMV.
I use and recommend a mix of dried sweet and bitter Curacao orange peel. If you're after a traditional Wit, or trying to get close to the benchmark commercial examples, you
need dried peel, 'cos they sure as hell aren't going to spend three days zesting four metric tons of oranges for their 30bbl batch. They're dumping in dried peel.
Suggestions:
- Get creative with spices other than Coriander and Orange. Try ginger, or paradise seed, or anise, or rosemary...something different.
- Don't overhop. The above-referenced pro recipe didn't even boil; it just simmered for an hour, and enough Saazer for 7-10 IBU went in at 30 minutes. For God's sake don't use flavor/aroma hops. A lot of the bitterness and ALL of the complex flavors and aromas crucial to Wit are supposed to come from the spices and yeast, not hops. Save the hops for IPA or something.
- Drink it fresh. Wit is a bucolic, ancient style, a throwback to the 14th and 15th centuries. Back then, if it fizzed it was because it was still at the tail end of fermentation. I've had Wit that fresh, and it's bloody awesome. Once, I brewed five gallons on Sunday. Thursday I kegged it (target FG was 1.010; I kegged it at ~1.018). We tapped it Friday night, and it was gone by midnight Saturday. Bliss!
Anyway, enjoy your Wit experience! It's a really cool style to brew.
Bob