A couple questions...

Yesterday was bottling day for my 2nd brew ever and I'm very pleased with how my beer has turned out so far! This is the hefty sample I allotted myself to sip on while bottling it up:





It's very sweet and fruity, with notes of brown sugar and just a light bite of ginger on the finish- very tasty and drinkable which is great! However, the recipe I followed was an extract Belgian wit recipe... As you can plainly see from the pic my beer looks NOTHING like a wit and def has some flavors to it I hadn't planned on (namely fruit and brown sugar). I don't think I "ruined" my beer by any means, it tastes fantastic, but I'm rather curious about why it came out so differently from what I had intended. I'll list the recipe and then the steps I took up to the point of bottling and hopefully I can get some feedback from you experienced guys as to what would have been more optimal for it to have come out more like a wit.

The recipe:

Preboil:
6 gal water

Boil:
6.6 lbs 40%wheat / 60% barley LME (75 mins)
Or
3.3 lbs 100% wheat LME + 3.3 lbs light pilsner LME (75 mins)
.75 oz tettnanger hops (60 mins)
.75 oz Saaz hops (60 mins)
.25 oz Saaz hops (end of boil)
.25 oz crushed coriander (end of boil)
.25 oz bitter orange peel (end of boil)
Pinch of "secret spice" (end of boil)

Fermentation:
Wyeast 3944 Belgian wit

It's a pretty simple and straightforward recipe. Here's how I prepared it, following John Palmers online text as my guide:

Preboil:
I boiled 3 gallons of water and then poured in my fermenter to cool. I then boiled the remaining 3 gallons.

Boil:
I added in 6.6 pounds of Briess wheat malt (60%wheat / 40% barley) and boiled for 15 mins.
I added both the tettnanger and Saaz bittering hops.
For a stronger spicy bite at the finish I tossed in the aroma hops and spices at 10 mins left of the boil, and I upped the orange peel and coriander to .5 oz instead of .25 oz. For the "secret spice" i used grated fresh ginger, which I guesstimated was about .25 oz.

Fermentation:
I ice bathed the wort to 80 degrees, splashed it into the fermenter (leaving as much solids as I could in the pot), pitched my yeast, and gently stirred a few times before closing the lid and storing it away to my closet where it sat between 68-72 degrees for 2 weeks.

And now we come to bottling day, the krausen had dropped and the beer smelt deliciously sweet. But somehow it turned out dark amber in color and had surprising notes of brown sugar. The only readily apparent taste coming through (that I had intended) was the touch of ginger on the finish. Not a bad ale by any means, but certainly NOT a Belgian wit.

I feel like i did everything right, except for maybe have taken a one or two peeks inside the bucket to check on it during fermentation. The only other thing that I can really think of is I possibly didn't let it sit in the fermenter enough? I'm guessing I should've given it another week or 2 in the primary before attempting to bottle it. Other than that I really have no clue how the beer could've turned out so vastly different from what the recipe said it would be..

And another question about carbing: I read somewhere about co2 not integrating fully into the beer until its been fridged for a week. The recipe said that the beer should be ready to drink in 2 weeks... Does that mean 2 weeks at room temp and 1 week in the fridge, or 1 week at room temp and 1 week I the fridge? My last brew I didn't fridge at all (except before drinking it) and it didn't come out vey carbed... I thought it was because I did't use enough conditioning pellets!

Thats wierd, having never used this malt combo its hard to say...

It almost looks like it wasnt the right LME? But like i said ive never used it, but i cant imagine Briess selling a wheat malt that looks more like a Amber.

As for carbing, keep them out for atleast 2 weeks. Then i'd start cycling bottles into the fridge 2-3 at a time sampling each day until the carbonation hits the level you want, then put them all in. Leave the others out at 68-70.

Since its a wheat beer it tastes better while young, as opposed to a ale that would only get better with age.

AustinFromTexas said:

And another question about carbing: I read somewhere about co2 not integrating fully into the beer until its been fridged for a week. The recipe said that the beer should be ready to drink in 2 weeks... Does that mean 2 weeks at room temp and 1 week in the fridge, or 1 week at room temp and 1 week I the fridge? My last brew I didn't fridge at all (except before drinking it) and it didn't come out vey carbed... I thought it was because I did't use enough conditioning pellets!

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Keep it at room temp for 2-4 weeks, but by all means its your beer drink it. I would not fridge it till after 3 to 4 weeks. The fridge will slow down bottle conditioning.

Sounds like a delicious beer.

LME + 75minute boil = high SRM
fermentation temps of 68-72 = fruity notes.
Colder = more CO2 in solution

If you really want to drink it in two weeks then ferment 4 days, bottle for 8 days, fridge for 2 days, but that is really pushing it. You really want it to sit above 65 after the fermentation has completed for at least a couple of days. If it was a hot fermentation and you don't want fruit flavors, let it sit longer before bottling. Two weeks in bottles will ensure that enough CO2 is produced. You need at least 2 days in the fridge for a 2 volumes of carbonation. It will be better with a week in the fridge.

I think woodlandbrew is spot on, 75 minute boil is going to darken the color. I think the fern temp is the taste culprit, Belgian yeasts when the get warm are going to throw out fruit tastes. It may have come out with a high FG, giving it some sweet flavor, especially if you think it didn't ferment long enough. Did you take a FG reading?

WoodlandBrew said:

Sounds like a delicious beer.

LME + 75minute boil = high SRM
fermentation temps of 68-72 = fruity notes.
Colder = more CO2 in solution

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+1. There is really no reason to boil an extract batch longer than the first hop addition. For partial boils you might also want to read about late addition technique to avoid the maillard reactions and carmelization that are most likely giving you the dark color and brown sugar taste.

Thanks for the great responses! My intent was to brew this beer for thanksgiving and I actually think the way it turned out will pair much better with our turkey day feast than the planned Belgian wit would, considering the fruitiness and brown sugar flavors of the beer. Based off what I've learned from the responses you've given I have just enough time to let it condition at room temp for 2 weeks and then let it fridge for a few days until tday. I'm confident it will suit my purposes exceedingly well (something tasty to get toasted on while stuffing face with excellent homecooked food)

I'm definitely gonna try this recipe again as the wit is def a favorite style of mine! Next time I'll try it with just a 60 min boil and I'll def look into the late addition technique as well. I also think that giving it a month to ferment in primary is a good idea too, just from what I've seen from various posts on this site. Unfortunately I didn't plan ahead enough in time- if I start my Christmas brew this week I should have enough time to give both fermentation and carbing the time they deserve!

As was mentioned, boiling extract in a small amount of water for 75 minutes means it will have lots of maillard reactions, and darken considerably.

Next time, add the majority of the extract at flame out. That will preserve the light color, plus reduce the maillard reactions and not give you a cooked extract taste (that "brown sugar taste" you mentioned).

You only need to boil the water and hops for as long as your longest hops time. In your recipe, that is 60 minutes. So add 2 pound of extract, more or less, at that time (one pound of extract per gallon of water is a good ratio) and hop the same way. At flame out, stir in the rest of the extract well and then begin cooling.

Ok so I've already bought the ingredients to do this recipe again and am going to give it another go this weekend using the suggestions you've provided. To reduce the fruitiness of the beer at what temperature should I ferment it at?

If you're using the same yeast, I've always read/heard ferment at the lower end of the recommended range which in this case is 62-75F.

You do want some of the spicy clove for a wit, but not the fruitiness. I would ferment in the middle of the lower half of the temperature range at 65 degrees. Are you using a swap color or water bath like this:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/09/swamp-cooler.html

pellis007 said:

If you're using the same yeast, I've always read/heard ferment at the lower end of the recommended range which in this case is 62-75F.

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The original yeast I used was on backorder, along with the other suggested yeast for the recipe (damn you hurricane Sandy) so I'm making do with the Wyeast 3942 Belgian wheat strain instead. The ferm range on this one is 64-74. So I should try to keep it around 64 instead of in the low 70's?

I would go with 64 degrees for that yeast. The ester and phenolic profile sounds more like a Belgian dark than a wit.

The use of a water bath seems very handy... What kind/size container is best to use?

AustinFromTexas said:

The use of a water bath seems very handy... What kind/size container is best to use?

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Mine is just something I had. It doesn't matter too much. The bigger it is the more stable the temperature will be.

My rig:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/09/brew-day-for-doppelweizenbock-ii.html

Lots of people use the rope totes that you have probably seen used to put drinks or a keg on ice at parties. If I was going to buy something it would be the 10 galon igloo cooler. It's insolated and big enough for a 6.5 gallon bucket or a 5 gallon carboy.

Described in detail, and link to the product at the end of this post:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/11/lagering-outside.html

Last night I added an aquarium heater so I can brew a Saision this weekend.

AustinFromTexas said:

The original yeast I used was on backorder, along with the other suggested yeast for the recipe (damn you hurricane Sandy) so I'm making do with the Wyeast 3942 Belgian wheat strain instead. The ferm range on this one is 64-74. So I should try to keep it around 64 instead of in the low 70's?

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I'd shoot for 64-65. A swamp cooler works great with this as others have said. I have used one for both of my last 2 batches. My ambient temp in the basement is 68 and I'm able to keep one primary at 58 and the other at 65 which is what each yeast calls for at the lower ranges. I use a fan on the lower temp primary and not on the other which is why I can do different temps.

So I just reattempted this recipe today using all of the suggestions you guys gave me. I put in what I guesstimated was 3 lbs of extract in 3 gallons of water, boiled for 60 mins and then added the rest of the extract in at flameout before giving it an ice bath and splashing it into 3 more gallons of preboiled water. It is certainly lighter this time around but still seems rather dark in its 6 gallon form... The extract itself is incredibly dark so perhaps I'm just using the wrong style of wheat malt altogether, I find it hard to imagine how the dark color of the malt could turn into a white ale, unless the yeast helps change the color in some way during fermentation?

On a separate note I upped the coriander to about .75 oz and used .5oz of sweet orange peel instead of the bitter. No ginger this time around. I'm using my bottling bucket as a swamp cooler of sorts, as it's wide enough to float my skinnier fermenter in a few gallons of water. Probably not the best swamp cooler, but space is pretty limited here in my Brooklyn apartment, and my existing equipment is bulky enough as it is. For the time being I'm suffering the chilly autumn air (along with the city noise) to come through my window in the attempt to bring down the room temp to 65. I also plan on letting this batch sit in primary for a good month before bottling. I'm pretty excited to do side by side comparisons between first batch and second batch to see how much these new techniques really affect the beer!