Fruit and Spice Beer Blood Orange Belgian Wit

Why wouldnt you do this as a full boil or at least 1/2 gallon short of a full boil?

Brew day was Saturday. Belgian Abbey was as advertised, a slow starter, by Monday pm was bubbling steady. Frozen tundra of western NY means the primary has made my dining room smell wonderful.

Followed recipe, toasted the coriander, blood oranges as they are in season.

What's are the pro's and con's of a secondary? The opaque nature of the wort has me a bit worried.




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i brewed this recipe and it is currently in the keg, carbonating. I didn't have any coriander at the time, so left it out, i think i threw in a half ounce of saaz instead since i had it and had no plans to use it in anything else. would adding coriander to the keg impart any flavor at this point, or should i just try to include it in future brews?

This was my 3rd brew and I'm really excited about it. I found this recipe and was too excited to wait to order everything online so I cobbled together what I could find at my LHBS store. I used 6 lbs of the Muntons Wheat DME and used the Safbrew wb-06 since that's what I could find. everything else was per instructions in the OP. I put the steeped oranges and zest in a nylon bag and put it in the fermentor last night around 11:00 and it was bubbling happily when I checked it at 6:00 this morning.

My OG was a bit low because I forgot about the orange mixture when I was adding the water. After adding the orange mixture, my OG ended up around 1.047 or 1.048. Is this going to end up too thinned down? Should I try to fix it by boiling and adding some additional DME?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

@Ryandean: It won't thin out too much. First of all Wits within style should be drier in nature and should have a low to medium body. On top of that you are making an extract brew, which I doubt has the ability to finish too dry. Lets say you get 70% attenuation, you'll finish at around 1.014 with ~4.5% ABV. Seems perfect to me, I wouldn't worry.

My OG was 1.056 with a full boil (note that your OG may be closer to mine than 1.047 if you topped off with water and didn't fully integrate the water addition & wort). Mine finished at 1.016 which was actually too sweet for my liking (but still real tasty). The Wit style guidelines FG range is 1.006 - 1.010.

Thanks for the reply, can't wait to see how it turns out.

This beer came out drinkable but largely disappointing. I think it was largely due to mediocre oranges.. Can anything be added to the keg to freshen up the flavor?

Try adding some orange juice concentrate. Maybe start with a half a can.

Made the recipe, turned out quite well.

Going to let it age until June/July for summer BBQ's.

Fortunately, we actually had blood oranges here in Yellowknife (big surprise), so followed recipe instructions and it turned out quite well.

Thanks for the recipe.

Cheers

cant wait to try this recipe

so i am still kinda confused on the oranges part? I bought a bag to put the oranges. Am I just using the zest or the whole orange. thanks.

psalgado0108 said:

so i am still kinda confused on the oranges part? I bought a bag to put the oranges. Am I just using the zest or the whole orange. thanks.

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Use all of the orange. I grated the zest and roughly chopped them up and boiled them to kill off any bacteria and release the oranginess. While boiling I used a potato masher to release more of the juices, cooled it then added it to the wort without a bag. I separated the pulp out when racking.

you want to avoid any of the pith (white flesh) while zesting and then also peeling the skin off the fruit. If you leave any of the pith while steeping/boiling it will cause a bitter taste.

Cheers

thanks for the help. I cant wait to try this out. I went with Cara Cara oranges, the Blood Oranges weren't looking to good

the oranges stay in for the whole fermentation period?

rskelhorn said:

Made the recipe, turned out quite well.

Going to let it age until June/July for summer BBQ's.

Fortunately, we actually had blood oranges here in Yellowknife (big surprise), so followed recipe instructions and it turned out quite well.

Thanks for the recipe.

Cheers

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I wouldn't age it on purpose. Most wheats are best young and don't age as well as most beers.
This recipe in particular i found as it aged the orange flavour fades, and i found it to get more and more bitter the longer i had it. I don't know if this was a result of maybe getting too much of the pith in, but it wasn't a good hoppy bitterness.

I must say though that this is one of my favorite recipes i have tried yet, and since it's blood orange season again i will definitely be making it again.

I made this 8 days ago and used an extra blood orange, the smell coming out of the airlock is all oranges. I can't wait to try it!

Brewed this today. My Girlfriend loves a local beer here called Hangar 24 Orange Wheat so i figured i would make this for her birthday and see if she likes it. Blood oranges were out of season so i used Cara Cara oranges but other than that followed the recipe. Can't wait to try it.

Pulled my first one from the keg today. Pretty good, very similar to a shock top. Not as much orange flavor as i had hoped but it's definitely a smooth drinker on a warm day. Might be because i could not find blood oranges and used Cara Cara oranges.

Just curious, would anyone think it too crazy to use blood orange puree vs the whole oranges?

I've used puree in a number of recipes when I can not get blood oranges, you have to be careful not to use to much or it comes out too sweet. Use less and then take either a large grapefruit or two medium ones, zest about one half of the skin, be careful not to dig into the white pith, remove peel, section fruit, use two cups of water(I boil the water first then let it coolin fridge) heat to 170, let cool to whatever temperature you are fermenting, add to secondary. It will cut the sweetness and balance you end results. Blood oranges are available now though and I always use the real thing if it's available.

Brittney M said:

Just curious, would anyone think it too crazy to use blood orange puree vs the whole oranges?

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Most recipe kits will include a large can (48oz or so) of Vinters Harvest orange purée to use-can’t be all bad.

Ignats said:

I've used puree in a number of recipes when I can not get blood oranges, you have to be careful not to use to much or it comes out too sweet.

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Funny enough, that comment is actually perfect! I was hoping to boost the sweetness as I’m more of a fruity drinker. This recipe just sounded pretty darn good and wanted to give it a try. Started wondering though if the puree would really just impart more of just flavor and not the sweetness though.

What would be a good way to sweeten this back up? I dropped to a 1.002 fg

Brittney M said:

What would be a good way to sweeten this back up? I dropped to a 1.002 fg

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Are you kegging or bottling? Easy to backsweeten if kegging; just add your desired sugar source (honey or blood orange purée?) into the keg and taste. Repeat until desired sweetness is achieved.

If bottling, it’s gonna be a bit trickier. Take a look into pasteurization after capping and see what the safest current methods are. Basically you’d do the same as above, but do it in the bottling bucket, and then add the extra amount of sugar source needed to achieve your desired carbonation level. Test a bottle around the two week mark and if it’s at your desired sweetness and carbonation level, do the pasteurization method you’ve researched. That should stop the yeast from converting the sugar to co2 and “lock in” that level of sweetness.

Perhaps someone who has done this more frequently than myself (have done it once) can comment about their technique.

Is there a difference between brewing coriander and coriander bought in the bulk aisle from the grocery store?

I’m on day 13 of primary fermentation. My Tilt says gravity has dropped from 1.078 to 1.025, and I still have consistent activity in the airlock.

At what point would y’all rack to a secondary? Or would you wait a couple more weeks before making the decision to use a secondary vs going straight to keg?