Belgian Witbier color question..

Just a quick quesiton that I could not find and results in a search. In my second extract attempt I tried the aforementioned Witbier with the recipe included below. The resulting color has me a little concerned. Should I be? It appears to be darker than a 6 and lighter than a 12 so around a 7-9 for this Witbier!

Thoughts?

I did a partial boil with 2 gallons

7 lbs. Wheat liquid malt extract
8 oz. Wit specialty grain
3/4 oz Willamette hops 60 mins
1/4 oz Willamette hops 15 mins
3/4 teaspons Coriander 15 mins
1 oz bitter orange peel 15 mins
1/2 oz Saaz 3 mins

I also added 1 lb. dry wheat extract to boost the alcohol.

Of course I'm not too concerned if the flavor is there, but it looks like the grains darkened it a bit to me.

BTW, I did read about LME creating a darker beer, but I didn't expect it to be this dark. am I off?

That is just a reality of malt extract, particularly liquid extract. I started with extract brewing and made an amber looking wit that tasted great, so no worries. I gotta say though, it does feel great to be able to make a properly colored wit.

How are you judging the color? Kettle, fermenter or in the glass?

Yes, the whole point of making a particular style is to be complete, that includes color! Consider this lesson learned.

I based the color as i was moving from kettle to fermentor. I didn't try a glass, but it certainly isn't a light color as anticipated!

I picked up a Wit kit from brewews best and tried it last month. It came out great. Color in a glass was just a shade darker than orange juice. taste was perfect, even though i fermented it about 5 degrees F to warm.(72). I modified the recipe a little and made it myself this time. I think i screwed up cause i added the coriander and peel too soon. i let themboil abour 40 min. Can i expect off flavors or colors?

By no stretch of the imagination am I a pro, but I'm thinking 72 is spot on, and it is recommended by White Labs 400 for 70-75! I actually pitched my yeast yesterday by mistake at around 78 degrees since we are in a mini-heat wave here already. I took it to our basement and by 10 pm it was 72 and this afternoon it seemed to settle to 70! I thought I trashed the batch but it seems to be more than happy as it has already started bubbling.

As for the coriander and peel, I would say you might have weakened it by adding it so early but ya never know for sure..

How much did you use of each?

LME is notorious for causing darker color, especially if you do a small boil. If you pour it into the kettle while it's on the heat, it will scorch or caramelize really easily. I'd recommend doing a partial late extract addition and/or increasing boil volume. If you can't do either of those, at least pull the pot off the heat and stir to dissolve the LME before going back on the heat.

Both of those changes will increase your hop utilization so you may be able to back off the bittering addition. You need to run that through a calculator to know how much to modify it, though. 3/4 down to 1/2 oz is probably about right.

What''s up with witbier specialty grain? Typically pilsmalt and wheatflakes or wheatmalt will do just dandy... Neither is particularly expensive and you eliminate the risk caramelized LME.

If this is an extract with steeping grain kit, the 8 oz of grains are probably just as you described--pilsner malt and wheat. Most of the fermentables would be the wheat LME. Any problems with color (or whatever) would be the fault of LME.

Nerro said:

What''s up with witbier specialty grain? Typically pilsmalt and wheatflakes or wheatmalt will do just dandy... Neither is particularly expensive and you eliminate the risk caramelized LME.

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So, by using either pilsmalt or wheatflakes I can gain the acceptable color? Also, the LME (it was Munton's Wheat) that my local HBS provided me appeared dark from the git go, is there lighter LME that i can use for this style and avoid caramelization?

Furthermore, if I use the technique of removing from heat to add the LME how does that affect boil time and the addition of subsequent ingredient addition at various boil times (if that made sense). It take a moment or two, to add 7 lbs of LME.

Whoa! slow down, relax, have a beer. The muntons is darker than some. I know from experience the brewers best kit is very lite, but they dont use muntons LME. I cant remember the brandbut color was i guess a 73 or so off of the kit. Try and find out what they use and you should have no prob.

Hehehehe... Lots of questions, lots of questions.. How different a result would the extracts provide?

HillbillyDeluxe said:

Whoa! slow down, relax, have a beer. The muntons is darker than some. I know from experience the brewers best kit is very lite, but they dont use muntons LME. I cant remember the brandbut color was i guess a 73 or so off of the kit. Try and find out what they use and you should have no prob.

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HellenicHomeBrewer said:

Furthermore, if I use the technique of removing from heat to add the LME how does that affect boil time and the addition of subsequent ingredient addition at various boil times (if that made sense). It take a moment or two, to add 7 lbs of LME.

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Normally I pull the kettle off the heat, start to stir, and stop the timer when I start pouring in the LME. Once it's back on the heat *and* back to a boil, I re-start the timer. Maybe this gets a little more bittering, but normally I do the late addition at 15 minutes anyway so the flavor and aroma hops (and any spices, etc.) get the correct boil time.

I typically add 1/3 of the LME after I pull the Steeping Grains out. The water is around 152 degrees and the LME mixes well. Once its fully incorporated, I turn the heat on and bring it to a boil. Now I do my hop additions for the 60 minutes and then flame out. I move the pot to a cold burner and stir for about a minute. This helps to cool the bottom of the pot. Then I add the remaining 2/3 of LME, stir for a few minutes, and then do the ice bath.

So if using 6 pounds of LME total, I add 2 pound after steeping, and the remaining 4 pounds a few minutes after flame out. This prevents any caramelization and darkening. YMMV.

Kind Regards,

Outlander