Belgian Wit Recipe

First attempt at a Witbier, how does this look?

Type: partial mash

1.0 lbs flaked oats
1.0 lbs 2-row pilsner malt

7.0 lbs Wheat LME
1.0 oz Hallertau (bittering @ 45 min.)
1.0 oz coriander added at 10 minutes
1.0 oz fresh orange zest at 10 minutes
2 tsp. fennel seed 10 min
5 cloves 10 min
0.25 oz paradise seed
Wyeast 3944 Witbier

Mini mash the oats and pilsner with 1 gal. water (I think sparging is optional here). Strain into boiling kettle (not worried about too much oxidization here, as it is such a small mash). Add LME, begin the boil.

Looks pretty good to me! There are a few modifications I'd make, however:

1. That amount of honey won't add enough flavor to notice and you don't need to either boost the OG or "dry out" the body of the beer. Omit it.

2. Delete the second hops addition. You don't want hops flavor, you want spice flavor. In my experience, hops clash with spices commonly used in Witbier.

3. Why separate additions of spices? Just add it all at once, at knockout. Overcomplication is the enemy.

4. Why fresh zest? Bitter curacao peel is traditional, and in fact provides quite a lot of the bitterness the brewer usually extracts from hops. My Witbier only has about 7 IBU and uses a lot of bitter dried orange peel. Plus I don't have to zest a bunch of oranges; I just open a plastic sack. It's important to note the spices in Witbier aren't merely there for flavor; they've got more than one job to do.

5. I prefer 3944. YMMV.

6. Consider adding a touch of Paradise Seed along with the other spices. Adds a bit of indefinable something.

Cheers!

Bob

Thanks for the advice! Just brewed it last night with the updated recipe above!