Brewing this Witbier tomorrow - Whatta YA Think

1.052 OG 11 IBU 90 min boil

5.0 lb Pilsner, Belgian
1.75 lb Whole Grain Wheat (from Whole Foods)
1.5 lb Flaked Wheat
1.0 lb White Wheat Malt
0.5 lb Flaked Oats
0.25 lb Aromatic

0.5 oz Sterling @ 50 min
.75 oz Indian coriander @ 1 min
.75 oz Orange Peel, Bitter @ 1 min


Protein Rest 120 for 15 min
Sacc rest 150 for 60 min
Mash out 168 for 10 min

WLP400 with 1800 ml starter

Options Add some clear candi sugar
maybe add .25 oz Grain of Paradise ?????

Recipe in my dropdown for reference...

I would lose the malted wheat and go with all of the wheat as the raw wheat from Whole Foods. I used half unmalted wheat in my grist and it was awesome. Since you are doing a protein rest anyway the flaked wheat doesn't really buy you anything. If you get the red winter wheat you will be rockin, that is the best for Wits. Otherwise the grainbill looks OK to me.

Don't boil too vigorously, just a simmer. You want to drive off SMM but you don't want to overcoagulate the proteins or caramelize the wort too much.

GOP or something is fine as long as you don't use enough to be able to detect what is in there. I use chamomile, 2g. .25oz of GOP is probably too much for a Wit. It's powerful stuff.

Ferment with that strain WARM. 72*F+. At 68*F it doesn't give enough yeast character and it produces sulfur which isn't desirable.

Thanx for the pointers Sacc...

No time to go back to the store for another bag of raw wheat so I'll use the 2 lb of flaked wheat and drop the malted wheat. I just crushed the raw wheat and it looks reddish in color.
I will drop the GoP and keep it simple.
Understand on the boil and I'll keep the ferment temp up @ 72º.
I'll add candi sugar only if my pre-boil gravity is low.

From what I understand this is a drink early beer, should I keg in 4 weeks??

You should package as soon as you reach final gravity. Witbier should be consumed as young and fresh as it can be.

Oh, and I'd drop the Aromatic, definitely don't use the Candisugar unless your gravity is, like, ten points low, and add 5 grams of Paradise Seed. That's about half the packet you get at homebrew shops.

+1 to Sacc's advice about simmer, not boil, and to ferment it warm.

Cheers!

Bob