Tejas Wit

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Saccharomyces

Be good to your yeast...
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
5,438
Reaction score
166
Location
Pflugerville, Texas
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WLP400
Yeast Starter
1L from stir plate
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.25
Original Gravity
1.051
Final Gravity
1.006
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
12
Color
pale
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 @74*F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
-
Tasting Notes
Well balanced, refreshing, dry but citrus-forward American style Belgian Witbier.
This beer won honorable mention in the Southern Star Best of Show competition for 2009 and was my only 2009 LongShot entry. Try giving this to your friends when they want something light and refreshing to drink all summer long!

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Grain Bill:
40% 2-row
40% Flaked Wheat
10% Flaked Oats
10% Table Sugar

Single infusion mash for 75 minutes at 150*F.

Hop Bill:
1 oz Saaz 60'
.25 oz Cascade 15'

Spices:
Added at flameout and steeped 2 minutes before chilling
.75 oz Indian coriander, coarsely crushed
1 oz dried sweet orange peel
2 grams chamomile

Notes:
You can certainly change up the spices in this beer. It finishes dry and is very delicate so be careful not to overdo it. I used dried peel because the recipe was supposed to be able to be replicated on a commercial brewhouse (I brewed it for a pro-am comp), I would normally use 1-2 ounces of fresh orange zest instead.

The boil should be very gentle, just a bare simmer, so you don't get a lot of kettle melanoidins. Avoid heating at full throttle to a boil for the same reason. The color is nearly white in the glass.

I used moderately hard water treated with Campden to remove chlorine and treated per Palmer's spreadsheet.

Expect 10% less than your usual efficiency to kettle with this beer due to the high percentage of flaked, unmalted grains. A protein rest will improve yield but only by about 5% so I chose to skip it to keep things simple.

Bottle conditioned to 3.1 volumes of CO2 (about 5.5 ounces dextrose for 5 gallons). To serve... Aggressively pour half the bottle, let the head settle, slowly pour off half the remainder, swirl to rouse the yeast, and quickly dump the remainder of the bottle into the glass. This beer is best served within one month of brewing, the spice flavor and aroma fades quickly.
 
Saccharomyces, I wanted to thank you for this great recipe. I was searching for the right recipe for a wit. Your description sounded exactly like what I wanted.

I partial mash, so I converted it and brewed it about a month ago. Last Saturday we had my birthday party at the drive-in movie. In our old VW bus, I took the Tejas Wit, a British Porter, and homemade Root Beer in 3 corny kegs. Worked out great! Guess which keg was the lightest at the end of the evening….Tejas Wit! Fortunately it wasn’t floated by our friends so I'm still able to enjoy some back at home. :)

For those who aren’t all grain yet, here’s my PM conversion of Saccharomyces’ recipe. I’ve attached a picture. By the time I got up from the basement to the window the head had fallen a bit. This recipe is delicious and approved by my friends and family! Some were “discerning” beer drinkers, some were more BMC. It’s clear they all enjoyed it!

My intention was to follow the recipe to a “T” but I made a couple of changes that were coping strategies on brewday. I didn’t have enough oranges - I thought I had bought enough. I use a Microplane zester I bought when we baked pies for a local luncheonette – Microplanes are fantastic! However, Microplanes do not take ANY of the pith – much less than the traditional zester. So, I ran out of oranges too soon. I used some zest from lemons off our own lemon tree, and zest from some key limes I had. I made up the weight deficit with dried bitter orange peel. The resulting was something like 40% fresh orange zest, 7% fresh meyer lemon zest, 3% fresh key lime zest, and 50% dried bitter orange peel.

I also used excellent loose Chamomile from a local tea and spice retailer…WAY better than using teabags if you have a source. The subtle floral aroma and sweetness from Chamomile is perfect in a wit. Presence of Chamomile is one of the reasons I picked this recipe – the others were the use of fresh zest and oats for silkiness.

I’ll buy more oranges next time so I don’t have to use dried bitter orange peel. I can tell a big difference with fresh zest, so next time I want 100% fresh.

I did the wheat dme as a late extract addition.

I only used 1 oz of citrus (dried plus fresh) because I didn’t want less than 50% fresh. Next time I brew it I’ll use 2 oz of fresh.

Mash:
2.5# Two row
1.5# flaked wheat
1# flaked oats

I mashed in 2.5 gallons water. (I use BIAB for my PM.) Followed mash temp and time for Saccharomyces all grain recipe.

I sparged with 2.25 quarts at 170 F using a big colander on top of my brewpot.

Other fementables:
1# table sugar
2.6# Wheat DME

Same boil time, hops, and spice amounts and schedule as Saccharomyces as well.

Once wort got to boil, I pulled off flame and added the sugar. Follow hops, spice addition schedule per Saccharomyces.

I added the Wheat DME at 15 minutes.

Brew this! It is a delicious beer for this time of year, and there’s enough hot weather left to enjoy it.

Thanks again, Saccharomyces. I’m a Texan who lives elsewhere now – the name was the cherry on top of a great recipe! :mug:

Tejas Wit Pic.jpg
 

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