Witbier Citrus - Peach Witbier

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bierhaus15

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2008
Messages
1,949
Reaction score
446
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WY 3944
Yeast Starter
Yes
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.0
Original Gravity
1.052
Final Gravity
1.010
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
20
Color
3.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
21 days @ 62-65F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
7+ days @ 68F
Tasting Notes
Mellow lemony-orange citrus with a subtle peach-spice flavor. Very refreshing!
Foremost, this is not a manly beer. It does not go well with smoked meat or football games, and should not under any circumstances be shared with your snobbish BMC drinking co-workers. As my friend said, if this beer could talk, it would ramble on about minivans, shopping at Pier 1, and furniture upholstery. It is, however, a very tasty and refreshing beer that most people seem to really enjoy. And it’s easy to make.

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 55.60 %
4.00 lb Flaked Wheat Grain 44.40 %

1.0 oz Saaz (60 min) Hops 20.0 IBU

For last 10 min of boil:
0.50 oz crushed Indian Coriander
1/4th teaspoon Mace (Spice)
Zest of 2 large Lemons, 1 Lime, 1 Navel Orange or Grapefruit

Mash at 152 for 75 minutes
Boil gently for 90 minutes

2lbs fresh Peaches cubed or puree (added to secondary)


Notes:

Go easy on the spices, the mace especially. Mace is a very strongly flavored spice and can overwhelm the beer if too much is added. However, it complements lemon and fruit flavors amazingly (think peach pie and fruit breads) and it really adds some complexity to the beer. If you are worried about the amount, add a little during the boil and adjust later in the secondary.

I use fresh peaches that have been cubed and gently heated to kill any bacteria, but not enough to set the pectin. You can use canned peach puree or frozen peaches from the supermarket if you prefer. I found 2lbs added the perfect amount of peach flavor; enough to make one think of peach, but not too much that it becomes a peach beer. I added it to the secondary for about a week.

Feel free to use whatever citrus fruits you have laying around; though I find the lemon and lime additions really bump the citrus flavor.

Some of you may have noticed that the ferment temp is a little low. There is a reason for this. Since there are a lot of things going on in this beer, we don't want tons of crazy esters and yeast flavors to dominate the beer. A lower ferment temp will keep the beer relatively clean and allow the subtleties of the peach, spice, and citrus additions to come through.

Lastly, this beer was awarded 3rd place (witbier) at the NY State Fair. The peach flavor and mace sort of threw the judges a bit, but it was overall well liked and received good comments.
 
BelgianWit3.jpg


Enjoy! :D
 
Thanks for the recipe!!!! This is in the near future! What were the overall reviews at the comp you sent to?
 
Got yeast in the mail....Starter tomorrow and brewing on Friday!!!! woohoo....

Awsome! I just brewed a small 2 gallon batch of this last week for a friends b-day coming up. Just remember to take it easy on the spices, keep the ferment temps in check, and you'll have a great beer. I don't have the score sheets in front of me, but the beer recived scores in the mid-high thirties. Judges comments were good; liked it for drinkability, balance of flavors, and complexity. Only negatives were that it was borderline out of style for the fruit addition.

Let me know how it comes out!
 
Just pitched my yeast!! Used Wheat pale malt instead of flaked and opted for the grapefruit zest instead of orange....My mash temp came out to high...156.... but it is what it is now!! OG": 1.048

pre yeast tasted delicious!! reminded me of fruit loops cereal. Will let it sit on yeast for 2-3 weeks, and then I opted for 3# of peach puree.

Thanks again for the recipe. Cant wait for the finished product!!
 
This looks great - If I wanted to convert it to a partial mash how does this sound:

3 lbs pils DME
2 lbs wheat DME
1-2 lbs Flaked wheat grain?
 
So how did it turn out???

MIne turned out way to citrusy...I would cut down the zest alot... Because of my high mash it also didnt attenuate all the way and I ended up with a 3.9% beer....Not overly fond of it but its drinkable...

Because of the over citrus I tell folks its a hard lemonade and they love it....call it a citrus peach wit and they are not as fond....the power of suggestion works great sometimes.....lol
 
MIne turned out way to citrusy...I would cut down the zest alot... Because of my high mash it also didnt attenuate all the way and I ended up with a 3.9% beer....Not overly fond of it but its drinkable...

Sorry to hear that man. It is pretty easy to get too much citrus zest character, especially depending on the size of the citrus used. I probably should have been more cautionary with my directions. It might be a good idea to go with 1/2 the total amount of zest that I originally used and see how it does, what works for me might not work for everyone. Also, adding too much fruit will dry the beer out quite a bit. The key to this beer is balance, you don't want too much of one flavor.

I should brew this up again. It's been a while, though my last batch scored a 38 in a local beer comp, this time under specialty beers. I'm pretty happy with that.
 
I just racked onto 2 lbs of frozen peaches after a week in primary. i used t58 dry yeast I had on hand. The sample was surprisingly good. Does this really need 3 wks in secondary? I'm hoping to free up the fermentor a bit sooner than that.
 
I just racked onto 2 lbs of frozen peaches after a week in primary. i used t58 dry yeast I had on hand. The sample was surprisingly good. Does this really need 3 wks in secondary? I'm hoping to free up the fermentor a bit sooner than that.

One week in the primary is not enough time, usually. I'd really have given it at least two weeks in the primary on the yeast and another week in secondary with the peaches at a minimum. So after fermenting for a week, did you rack the beer off the yeast cake or just added the peaches to the primary?
 
DOH! just realized I reversed the recipe ferment timeline. Oh well. I racked into a clean secondary buti likely grabbed a bunch of yeast as it was still in suspension. I'm sure it will be drinkable. BTW I used zest of 2 lemons 1 lime and 1 grapefruit and found it perfectly citrusy. I did skip the mace bc I was not sure about what it would do. Thanks for the input!
 
Getting ready to mash in soon. Hope it turns out good! Forgot to get an orage but hopefully my friend can get me one on his way home.
 
This recipe looked great for some peaches that came from a friend's backyard. Going into the secondary today once the peaches thaw (froze them two months ago while thinking about what to do with them).
 
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