Witbier and Mash

So I am brewing a Wit and the recipe I came up with is:

4 lb Pilsner
3 lb Flaked Wheat
2 lb Malted Wheat
1 lb Flaked Oats

My question is, when calculating my mash water, do I include the adjuncts (flaked wheat and oats) into that calculation? I presume I do but just wanted to be sure...

yes. they still make up the grist. you have 10lb of grist. the only thing I don't count is the fistfull of rice hulls I toss in to help make sure my sparge is smooth...

Yes, you presumed correctly.

goose1873 said:

yes. they still make up the grist. you have 10lb of grist. the only thing I don't count is the fistfull of rice hulls I toss in to help make sure my sparge is smooth...

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To add to that, if you are using brewing software, Beersmith in particular, do not add rice hulls into your recipe, it will calculate it as a percentage of your grist throwing your numbers off.

Thanks fellas. Is 1 lb of rice hulls overkill?

no. but a half pound might do the trick.

I'd say go with a full pound, I brewed a Wit this past weekend, and my run-off was slooow, even with 1 lb of rice hulls.

Schnitz, I checked out your Wit recipe. What did you think about the amount of your spices? Too much? Too little? I was planning:

1 oz Bitter Orange Peel
1 oz Coriander Seed, crushed
1/2 oz Grains of Paradise, crushed
1 tsp flour

Thanks for all the input.

Schnitzengiggle said:

I'd say go with a full pound, I brewed a Wit this past weekend, and my run-off was slooow, even with 1 lb of rice hulls.

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This is one of the few times a pound is not really overkill...1/2 the grain bill is wheat malt and flakes which both cause issues with stuck sparges. I would not go over a pound though as that is already 10% of the grain bill. Also consider a protein rest as the 4lbs of flakes are not malted and have no converting power. Many people don't do this with great results, but its not a bad idea. Or add a little 6-row in place of the 2-row...

just thoughts...

mgo737:

That's pretty close to how I spice my wit. Only differences are that I don't have any grains of paradise or flour. I use 1 oz bitter orange peel, 1 oz sweet orange peel, and 1 oz cracked coriander seed (using mortar and pestle). It tastes excellent. What yeast are you planning on using?

shadowmage36 said:

mgo737:

That's pretty close to how I spice my wit. Only differences are that I don't have any grains of paradise or flour. I use 1 oz bitter orange peel, 1 oz sweet orange peel, and 1 oz cracked coriander seed (using mortar and pestle). It tastes excellent. What yeast are you planning on using?

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I am going with WLP400. So you are happy with 1 oz of each (bitter orange, sweet orange, and coriander)? Not too sweet/orange-y?

Nope. It's REALLY tasty. Very light and smooth. I used WLP530 as my yeast, so it's got a bit of a different character than a real wit, but it still tasted AMAZING. Even BMC drinkers loved it last time I had it at a party!

mgo737 said:

Schnitz, I checked out your Wit recipe. What did you think about the amount of your spices? Too much? Too little? I was planning:

1 oz Bitter Orange Peel
1 oz Coriander Seed, crushed
1/2 oz Grains of Paradise, crushed
1 tsp flour

Thanks for all the input.

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This brew I actually went to an Indian food store and purchased some Indian corriander, it is much more citrusy than store bought (usually Mexican) corriander. I had used store bought on a batch a while ago, I used 1 oz and it gave my beer a hot dog flavor, so if you are using store bought corriander, crush some up and smell it before you toss an entire oz in your brew. If the aroma isn't very orange/citrusy then I'd use only .5 oz.

I also forgot to update that recipe, I used 2.5 oz fresh grated bitter orange zest, and .5 oz of local grapefruit zest (both taken from trees in my area).

I like the grains pf paradise, I didn't have any on hand, so I tossed in the chamomile.

A fellow brewer I know uses flower in his brew too, but I don't think it is necessary, just suck up a bunch of yeast during racking and you should be good. Having said that, I just completed my kegerator, and this will be the first brew I will be kegging, I will probably have it kicked within 2 weeks since I drink a few beers daily, so I'm not certain how clear it will become chilling in the kegerator for 2 weeks.

So your spicing looks good, depending on what type of corriander you use.