Witbier Blue Balls Belgian Wit (Blue Moon Clone)

piteko said:

To let the wort drain more easily when you are filtering. If you are confident in your filtering method, they are not strictly necessary (I made the recipe without them and had no problem).

Remove them. They are used just like hops.

Cheers from Italy!
piteko

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Thanks!

I like blue moon, and one reason is that it doesn't taste wheaty like other wits and hefes. while I like wheatyness sometimes, I've never been able to make a wit without that bready taste. does anyone have tips for this? less wheat?

sorry if this was mentioned some 500 posts back, but isnt blue moon closer to 5.4% ABV? This recipe is only about 4%.

Just brewed this and I'll be damned if those little pieces of dried orange peel weren't a huge PITA! They kept clogging my spigot as I was transferring to my fermentation vessel. I ended up sanitizing a racking cane and tubing and using a strainer bag to make a safe place in the middle of my ribcage cooler to siphon from. This beer smells absolutely amazing when you add the coriander and the orange peel at 5 minutes! Unfortunately I ended up at 1.049 instead of 1.038 even after topping up to 6 gallons. I shouldn't have double milled the malt.....oh well. Iodine test showed full conversion at 60 minutes.

I really appreciate the recipe! Cheers BierMuncher!

Put the orange pieces and the Coriander into a hop bag...no more problems with clogging the spigot.

shadows69 said:

Put the orange pieces and the Coriander into a hop bag...no more problems with clogging the spigot.

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That is exactly what I will do next time. I know it will effect utilization a bit but I won't be cussing the wort either!

I have some fresh wheat from the farm. Can I use this instead of flaked wheat? If so, any changes in the mash instructions?

ronstar55 said:

I have some fresh wheat from the farm. Can I use this instead of flaked wheat? If so, any changes in the mash instructions?

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you can, just yesterday I opened the first bottles of witbier that I made with local red wheat, got it real cheap. just crush it a little finer than your barley, use a protein rest, and add rice hulls. Mine came out great! oh, and no need to pre-cook, the starches will gelatinize at mash temps

Thanks roastquake. protein rest it is.

I am making this next weekend with Wyeast 3944.. Was this ever answered? Didn't read whole thread

brewman ! said:

I can't help but notice that this is a wheat beer and there isn't an enzyme or protein rest. Should there be ? What would adding a rest do to the beers taste, head, efficiency, etc ?

Thanks.

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Another great recipe BM! Brewed up 3 gal of this and put it on tap last week.. Expecting it to go fast!

Ill be brewing the original recipe in a few hours. Any last minute advice? And I will post results and pics.

roastquake said:

you can, just yesterday I opened the first bottles of witbier that I made with local red wheat, got it real cheap. just crush it a little finer than your barley, use a protein rest, and add rice hulls. Mine came out great! oh, and no need to pre-cook, the starches will gelatinize at mash temps

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Just wanted to +1 you on that, roastquake. I use a raw spring wheat at 50% with the base malt and extended protein rest between 117F and 124F for 45minutes works great.

roastquake said:

I like blue moon, and one reason is that it doesn't taste wheaty like other wits and hefes. while I like wheatyness sometimes, I've never been able to make a wit without that bready taste. does anyone have tips for this? less wheat?

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Just an opinion but I've always had an issue with BlueMoon seeming too sweet and the carbonation too harsh. Shocktop, Alaskan-wit and Redhook-Wit are much better but I would always prefer the witbiers of homebrewers.

Can't wait. The ABV is low but I think its due to I was half a pound short on the wheat. Taste test was good and can't wait to try it in a few weeks

I happened to find a Blue Moon 6 pack tonight at the bottle store.. first time trying this beer. I look forward to making it on Saturday!

Dude you have great recipes this is damn right on to blue moon. I brewed it earlier this summer hit all my marks, bottled it and it went so fast.

Great beer! Thanks BierMuncher for the recipe!






Darn fine looking beer I might add

Edit: definitely messed up my first attempt to post that picture..

mine is tasting pretty good 2 weeks in, but the orange is quite overpowering and it tastes a little like honey? Will give it another week

Yes... thanks BierMuncher...

I have brewed this 3 times now... with great results....

Third time brewing and still lovin this beer, thanks Muncher!

Has my primary fermentation gone wrong? Its been in primary for a week, started off stron, but after 4 days no activity in the airlock opened the bucket and its pretty clear, no krosin on top. Gravity going into the bucket was 1.044 with a hydro, just measured it at 1.022 I used wyeast 3942, ferm temp was 68 deg.

Let it go for another week then take another reading. I always wait two weeks at least before I touch mine. Three weeks is even better. So, no nothing is wrong. I never pull beer from the primary after just one week, way to "green" and yeast needs time to clean up after itself.

Well I got impatient, I gently stirred up the yeast bed to re-suspend the yeast, and moved it in the house where its a little warmer. Ill check it again this weekend.

I'm starting to piece together my brew schedule for next year and i'm liking this and SWMBO Slayer. My question on this since most are saying it taste just like Blue Moon is does it taste different than Blue Moon?

To me Blue Moon tastes like a macro brewed attempt at the style, while not horrible it just "lacks flavor." It's been a couple years since I've had Blue Moon so maybe my palate has changed and now I might be able to pick up on the tastes of the style better, but back then it still had a macro light beer taste to it than turned me off.

I'm looking for something that has the orange/coriander/spicy aspects of a Wit, and not banana/clove that should be in a Hefe but not a Wit, seems like too many are "mixing" the styles. For home brewing, to each their own and if you like the combo of Hefe and Wit I say go for it, German Wit!!

Just tapped the keg. Added lemon and lime zest. Amazing beer. This recipe will be my go to wit beer for sure

Just kegged 2 weeks ago! Planning to make another batch. Loving life!

just got the ingredients for an extract brew but accidentally got 4lbs of LME instead of 3lbs of DME. Thought the recipe called or LME and LHBS only carried 4lb bags of it. Planning on using the whole thing as the conversion from DME to LME calls for about 3.5lb LME (i think). Hopefully that'll turn out close enough.

Brewing this today:
Take a look at the notes section as well.

Blue Moon II - Blonde Ale
Brewer shadows69
Date 5/17/13
Batch Size 5.500 gal
Boil Size 6.250 gal
Boil Time 60.000 min
Efficiency 75%
OG 1.047
FG 1.011
ABV 4.7%
Bitterness 17.3 IBU (Tinseth)
Color 4.0 srm (Morey)
Calories (per 12 oz.) 156

Fermentables
Total grain: 9.750 lbName Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
Pilsner (2 Row) Bel Grain 4.500 lb Yes No 79% 2.0 srm
Wheat, Flaked Grain 4.500 lb Yes No 77% 2.0 srm
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L Grain 8.000 oz Yes No 75% 10.0 srm
Oats, Flaked Grain 4.000 oz No No 80% 1.0 srm

Hops
Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Hersbrucker 4.2% 1.250 oz Boil 60.000 min Pellet 17.3

Yeast
Name Type Form Amount Stage
SO5 Ale Yeast ALE Liquid 2.367 tbsp Primary

Notes

Mash in temp 156(171) mash out 168(187)

use 1 tsp wheat flour @ 5 mins when using ale yeast

Steep oats at 15 mins

Orange extract .50 oz at keg time

.40 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 10.0 min)

Looking good going into the boil. I took everything i could read up on Blue Moon and piled into a big pile of ****. The recipe above is what i came up with. Will post the finish product in about 4 weeks. See how this stacks up against all the times I have made blue moon witch is more times then I can count.

shadows69 said:

Looking good going into the boil. I took everything i could read up on Blue Moon and piled into a big pile of ****. The recipe above is what i came up with. Will post the finish product in about 4 weeks. See how this stacks up against all the times I have made blue moon witch is more times then I can count.

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Nice. I'm also brewing this extract version today. Good luck with yours!

Glad I opted for the blow off tube. Got some crazy fermentation going on day two. Some irregular bubbling going on too.

tbulger said:

Boiled this up yesterday thanks for the recipe muncher cant wait for a few weeks to taste it. That flaked wheat gave me a hell of time with my braid! IT increased my brew session by about an hour or two, it was alright though i think i was drunk by that point anyways.

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Can anyone think of a reason it wouldn't be a good idea to toss the flaked wheat into a nylon bag first? It could be loosely floating in the mash tun, but this way clean up and overall drainage would be better. i think the only downside would be if by keep all the wheat together you don't really get a good conversion due to the homogenous clump you create in the bag.

dphornguy said:

Can anyone think of a reason it wouldn't be a good idea to toss the flaked wheat into a nylon bag first? It could be loosely floating in the mash tun, but this way clean up and overall drainage would be better. i think the only downside would be if by keep all the wheat together you don't really get a good conversion due to the homogenous clump you create in the bag.

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I did that because I didn't know we aren't supposed to, but I did the extract version so I don't think conversion was too big of a deal to me.

I just tasted this last night. OG:1.037, SG:1.007. It may not be done fermenting, although it has been nearly two weeks and I suspect it has. It tastes watery. Like extremely so. The hint of citrus and coriander is there, but there really is not flavour that jumps out at me. Is this just an early stage and conditioning/carb will fix it, or could I save it by adding in some brown sugar or something to give it some more flavour?

Anyone have recommendations for bottle harvesting yeast for this? Don't really want to buy another vial of yeast as I have too many varieties right now. I'm thinking Allagash White or Hoegaarden bottle yeast. What do you all think?

Allagash would definitely work. They use the same yeast to ferment as they do to bottle their White. On tap I love Allagash white, in the bottle it has more clove than I like.
Bells winter white
Ommegang witte or hennepin, they use the same yeast in both


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I brewed this as my first AG attempt (BIAB). I used my Mr. Beer fermentor, so I scaled the recipe down a bit. What I ended up putting in was:

2.25 lb pale
2.25 lb flaked wheat
a handful of oats (to help with what I assumed would be terrible efficiency)

.4 oz EKG (60 min)
.5 oz corriander (5 min)
.75 oz sweet orange peel (5 min)

Half-packet of US-05.

The hydrometer sample is phenomenal, and a few weeks from now when I open one up and start the lawnmower, that'll be a heck of a good day.

The best part is that a rebrew will cost about $4 using the leftovers from last time. Loving AG compared to extract!

I made this BIAB and overshot the OG: 1.052 but fermentation seems to be stuck. Its down to 1.030 and won't budge. I bought another vial of yeast, made a starter and pitched it. I stirred it every day for a week and still nothing.

I'm thinking of pitching drying a package of coopers yeast just to see if it will finish. This was my 3rd BIAB batch and the first one that won't finish so not sure what else to do here.

Xantus954 said:

I made this BIAB and overshot the OG: 1.052 but fermentation seems to be stuck. Its down to 1.030 and won't budge. I bought another vial of yeast, made a starter and pitched it. I stirred it every day for a week and still nothing.

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You already pitched twice? Was the second yeast at high krausen when pitching? If so, it's strange that two different vials gone stuck. Which temperature is the beer at? Did you double check the densimeter? I'm just trying to think out of the box...

If temperature is ok and the densimeter is fine, you could have reached a fermentation limit where you have no more fermentables. That would be strange, 1030 is pretty high. Which temp did you mash? What was the grist? Which yeast did you use?

Cheers from Italy!
Piteko