Blood Orange Belgian Wit

I have been excited to brew the Blood Orange Hefe since I saw it posted lasted year. Well my local Whole Foods had the Blood oranges for sale so I decided I would give it a whirl....in the end I decided to brew a Blood Orange Belgian Wit instead. :rockin: I'll post a pic in the future if I can.

Instead of using just the zest I went with the zest and fruit as is called for in the Blood Orange Hefe recipe. What I came up with is fantastic. It's like a Blue Moon only better. The orange flavor, corriander and slight phenolic/tart from the White Labs WLP400 (Belgian Wit) meld perfectly to my taste. I did change the hops as I wanted to use what I had on hand. This beer is still very young....but my god it's tasty. Here it is written up in the similar format as the hefe recipe.

Blood Orange Belgain Wit

2.5 gallons water
1/2 gallon for zest and fruit

Boil
6 pounds Briess DME Wheat (60 minutes)
1/2 ounce (15g) East Kent Goldings hop pellets (60 minutes)
5 average sized blood oranges (In another pot)
1/2 ounce (15g) Saaz hop pellets (20 minutes)
1/2 ounce (15g) East Kent Goldings hop pellets (10 minutes)
1 oz Crushed Coriander (5 minutes)

In carboy
Cool water to the 5-gallon (19L) mark

Fermentation
Yeast: Wyeast 1214, 3942 or 3944; or White Labs WLP400 or WLP550

Bottling
3.6 ounces CreamyX or other priming source.

STARTING GRAVITY: 1.052
FINAL GRAVITY: 1.011
FINAL TARGET ABV: 5.4%

PROCESS
1. Heat 2.5 gallons of water in the brewpot. As the water begins to boil, remove it from heat. Add the light wheat malt extract. Stir to prevent clumping and scorching on the bottom of the pot. Return the pot to heat.

2. Allow the wort to come up to a boil. Add the first East Kent Golding hop pellets and stir. Start timing the 1-hour boil at the point that you make this hop addition.

3. Zest and save all the oranges. Once the oranges are zested remove the fruit from the rind. The fruit and zest may be placed in a straining bag for easy removal after fermentation. Heat fruit and peels in 1/2 gallon (2L) of water to 160 degrees F (71C) and then turn off heat. Let it steep as it cools.

4. 20 minutes before the end of the boil, add the Saaz hop pellets.

5. 10 minutes before the end of the boil, add the second East Kent Golding hop pellets and stir for 1 minute.

6. At the 60-minute mark, turn off the heat source. Chill the wort in a cold water bath to a temperature of 70F-75F (21C - 24C).

8. Transfer the wort into a carboy or a plastic fermenter. Pour blood orange peels and fruit into the wort.

9. Aerate for 1 minute.

10. Pitch the yeast into the carboy and aerate for another minute. Top up the carboy to a 5-gallon (19L) mark with cool water.

11. In about 12 days, your beer should be ready to package.

pics!

Sounds great... I think this might be my next batch.

I'll try and post a pic this week. I think it is a great tasting Belgian Wit and I'll brew again. If you like Blue Moon, you'll like this, although it has a more pronounced Belgian yeast flavor to it then Blue Moon.

Cheers

Making a Belgian Wit tonight, although I'm using packaged orange peel. My recipe calls for the coriander and orange peel to be boiled for the last 10 minutes. Do you think I'd be better off only boiling them for 5 minutes to get more flavor? Not sure if 10 minutes might be too much resulting in just a subtle orange flavor.

The Belgain Wit kit from Northern Brewer lists the orange and corirander as follows:

1 oz Coriander Seed (10 min)
-- 1 oz Bitter Orange Peel (1 min)

Cheers

jamesjensen1068 said:

The Belgain Wit kit from Northern Brewer lists the orange and corirander as follows:

1 oz Coriander Seed (10 min)
-- 1 oz Bitter Orange Peel (1 min)

Cheers

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Did you steep the coriander or add it directly to the wort? I'm brewing mine tonight and want to make sure I have it right. Also, I noticed your recipe called for adding coriander for the last 10 minutes but you did 5. I think I may do the same.

There are a number of ways to do it. I did my recipe as a hybrid of the Blood Orange Hefe recipe. A traditional Belgian Wit you don't steep the fruit, just the peel. I used fresh zested orange peel and the fruit too.

The addition time I listed were from the Northern Brewers Belgian Witbier kit....not the recipe I have listed above.

I did mine differently just because I was trying to modify the Blood Orange Hefe recipe into a Blood Orange Belgian Wit.

I did a very similar brew last month. I only used sazs hops, I also zested half of the oranges I used and added the zest about 5 mins left in the boil and I added a pound of local honey too. In my opinion it came out great

Here's a pic

Oooh, how was it?

One of the best Belgian Wit I have drank....if I do say so myself. I'll be brewing again for sure

Yeah, I was just inspired to try something different instead....the Wit just seemed like a good one to try with the blood oranges. I know...not a far stretch from a Hefe.

Cheers

I brewed a Mandarine Orange Heffe (5gal) this past weekend using 5 regular size mandarines and their zest (did not use pith). We were copying a Blood Orange heffe recipe from Sam Calagione's Extreme Brewing. We used Saaz and Hallertauer hops and racked into the primary on top of the mandarine and zest. It's been about half a week and things are bubbling along quite nicely. I'll definitely post our results in 4-5 weeks.

gurrback...sounds awsome. I'll need to try mine with something other than blood oranges as they are only in season for a short time. Best of luck with your Mandarine Orange Hefe

jamesjensen1068 said:

gurrback...sounds awsome. I'll need to try mine with something other than blood oranges as they are only in season for a short time. Best of luck with your Mandarine Orange Hefe

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Actually, we meant to use bloody oranges but I was 1 week late picking them up and by the time i got to the store the season had ended. Bad luck! Anyways, I read somewhere that any type of orange would do so I substituted the mandarine.

Update....six, seven weeks in and the orange flavor has really began to shine. The head has become thick and dense. I'll brew this one again for sure.

Cheers

Back in March, I brewed the Blood Orange Hefe from the recipe posted on these boards - turned out great! I will definitely brew that one again once the Blood Oranges are back in season.

I've been looking for a crisp, citrus summer brew to share with some friends (I would make an IPA every single time and be happy but I gotta please others, haha).

I didn't want to do the boring old lemon zest hefe, so this definitely caught my eye! Thanks!

Well, couldn't find the blood oranges anywhere so I went with red grapefruit. We'll see how it goes...

I followed the recipe perfectly except I added one pound honey at the beginning of the boil. I got an OG of 1.58 which seems low to me but who knows.

went through a keg of this a my party last saturday. Big hit. My guests were shocked that it was homebrew and how good it was.. I still have some blood oranges on the tree, but well past ripe. I might brew this again next week.

Toecutter, That is awsome...so glad you and your guests enjoyed it. What yeast did you use?

Cheers

jamesjensen1068 said:

Toecutter, That is awsome...so glad you and your guests enjoyed it. What yeast did you use?

Cheers

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I used White Labs WLP 400. Interesting thing. Last saturday, I went to dinner at BJ's brewhouse restruant. I was hopeing they would have a Kolsch on tap, but no. They did have a Belgian Witt. So I ordered a pitcher. Damned if it dident taste very much like what I brewed here. A little lighter, but the flavor was almost spot on. I'd bet they were using this same yeast.

I too used the WLP 400 and have been very happy with the results. I've heard that a Belgian Wit should be drank young. I've found that it has gotten even better with a little age.

Cheers

is there a big difference in oranges? i want to do this blue moon clone, but i am not sure if i will be able to find "blood oranges". i have not looked yet. but just in case... can a normal naval orange work?

amaier48 said:

is there a big difference in oranges? i want to do this blue moon clone, but i am not sure if i will be able to find "blood oranges". i have not looked yet. but just in case... can a normal naval orange work?

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Yes, any kind of orange will work. I am working through a keg of this right now where I used mostly valencia and naval oranges from my trees, and I like it better. Blood oranges tend to be more Tart. This keg reminds me of Hanger 21 Wheat beer. I plan on making another 10 gallon batch in a couple of weeks. It's rather addicting. See my recipe here :




https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/toecutters-brewery-blood-orange-belgian-wit-248280/

I would use what oranges you can now and then when blood oranges are available brew it again with them and report back the difference.

So I fell in love with the idea of this beer... So I went to my local store and purchased all the ingredients minus the oranges. I bought a White Labs Belgian Wit 2 this summer when it was available so I decided to use it for this brew. But here comes the interesting twist, I couldn't find blood oranges in any of the 5 stores I checked. So instead I bought 4 Pomegranates. What do you guys think?

I brewed the recipe but with 4 Pomegranates.... .

Just watch how much you use. Seens to me it dried my mouth a bit the last time I had one?..

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Its not enough, when I tasted it after taking the gravity reading, you could taste that it was there but like a foundation. I plan on adding 2 or 3 more a couple days before bottling to brighten it up.

Ok, so to inform from last time I posted... Tonight I Bottled the Pomegranate Witbier tonight. I ended with a OG of 1.012 giving me right around 5%. Fantastic!! So for those who have not read the post I changed the Blood Oranges for Pomegranates. When I brewed I put in the juice of 4 Poms and then put the bag of seeds and whatnot into the fermentation bucket. After fermentation, I was worried about how much flavor I got out of those 4 and to be honest, it tasted pretty good but I bought 4 more and juiced them. When I bottled tonight I used the juice from all 4 and then 2.75 oz of table sugar for priming, I didn't run any calculations but there should be enough sugars in the juice to make up for the rest of the sugars for carbonation. Before the addition of the priming solution it tasted pretty good, a little dry but still a base pom flavor, now it has a kick to it and is very smooth.

I will let you know in a couple weeks how it actually turned out with the carb and everything!

Mandrew said:

Ok, so to inform from last time I posted... Tonight I Bottled the Pomegranate Witbier tonight. I ended with a OG of 1.012 giving me right around 5%. Fantastic!! So for those who have not read the post I changed the Blood Oranges for Pomegranates. When I brewed I put in the juice of 4 Poms and then put the bag of seeds and whatnot into the fermentation bucket. After fermentation, I was worried about how much flavor I got out of those 4 and to be honest, it tasted pretty good but I bought 4 more and juiced them. When I bottled tonight I used the juice from all 4 and then 2.75 oz of table sugar for priming, I didn't run any calculations but there should be enough sugars in the juice to make up for the rest of the sugars for carbonation. Before the addition of the priming solution it tasted pretty good, a little dry but still a base pom flavor, now it has a kick to it and is very smooth.

I will let you know in a couple weeks how it actually turned out with the carb and everything!

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Mandrew,
How did this turn out for you?????

jamesjensen1068 said:

Mandrew,
How did this turn out for you?????

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It turned out amazing, everyone I gave it to liked it... they may not have been impressed but they wouldn't turn it down. I put it into a competition and got 31... I think I would have gotten higher if I would have categorized it better. It had the perfect carbonation and very bright pom flavors. As it has aged, it lost the brightness but is still good. But I would suggest it getting drank quickly.

I brewed the OP's orange wit on Sunday using WLP400 and hit an OG of 1.056. I usually take a hydrometer sample at 48 hrs and every other time I've been in the 1.010-1.020 range at this time. Today I took a sample and I was at 1.040. Should I be worried? Or does the White Labs yeast take a little longer than Wyeast to act?

MT8911 said:

I brewed the OP's orange wit on Sunday using WLP400 and hit an OG of 1.056. I usually take a hydrometer sample at 48 hrs and every other time I've been in the 1.010-1.020 range at this time. Today I took a sample and I was at 1.040. Should I be worried? Or does the White Labs yeast take a little longer than Wyeast to act?

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Let the WLP400 do it's business. You should get several days of a very agressive fermentation. Mine always spews out a pretty nasty concoction that smells like Satan's Anus. Once it slows down, shake your fermentor a couple times a day to finish it up. I leave mine in the primary for about 18 days, cold crash for 3 days, then keg. I have 10 gallons ageing right now, and i'll be brewing another 10 gallons this weekend. stocking up for summer.