Witbier Double Decocted Belgian Witbier

[IslandLizard]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

Yeast Starter

2 liter on stir plate

Batch Size (Gallons)

5.5

Original Gravity

1.055

Final Gravity

1.008-1.010

Boiling Time (Minutes)

90

IBU

20.1 Tinseth

Color

3.4 SRM

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

7 days @65°F, 7 days @72°F

Tasting Notes

Big flavor for style

Inspired by Hoegaarden Wit

With this beer I won the 2014 Maryland "Free State Homebrew Guild's" Wheat Beer Competition on June 7.
The judges' notes mentioned "delicious", "big flavor for style", "load of orange", "aggressive with spices". Score: 39.
So if you want more subtlety, you can cut down a bit on the coriander and orange peel.

ABV: 5.9 %
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80 %
Mash Efficiency: 85 %

4# Red Wheat Malt (40.0 %)
3# Pilsner Malt (30.0 %)
2# Flaked Wheat (20.0 %)
1# Flaked Oats (10.0 %)

Mash according to Eric Warner's wheat beer double decoction profile (see notes):

1/2# Rice Hulls - stir into mash/lauter tun right after decoction or 15' before lautering. Add more if needed. It's going to be slow.

Boil: 90 Minutes
1 oz Golding @ 90 FWH (15.3 IBU)
7 g Bitter Orange Peel (see notes) - start soaking in hot water @ 60 (do NOT add until 5')
0.75 oz Saaz @ 15 (4.8 IBU)

1 tsp Irish Moss - optional (see notes) @ 10
1/2 tsp Di-Ammonium Phosphate/DAP (yeast nutrient) @ 5
1/4 tsp Epsom Salt/MgSO4 (yeast nutrient) @ 5
2 Tbsp Wheat Flour - to create "permanent" haziness (see notes) @ 5
7 g Coriander Seed - slightly toasted and coarsely cracked (mortar) @ 5
7 g Bitter Orange Peel - pre-soaked in hot water for an hour plus the dust @ 5

Good size starter of WY3944 (Belgian Witbier)
Ferment at 65°F for 7 days then raise to 72°F until done (typically another 7 days)

Notes:
Decoction Mash:
As far as I know Belgians do not use decoctions in brewing, so this is a different approach from the usual. I wanted a 60% wheat beer with a good load of raw flakes, so designed it that way. The double decoction takes 3.5 hours and the lautering another hour. If you've never done decoctions before, this is a good and rewarding exercise. To get more benefit from the time investment, brew this as a larger batch. I do a double recipe, 11 gallons, using 2 pots. A 15 gallon for the boil and an 8 gallon for the decoctions, plus a 52qt cooler mash tun, and it's very manageable that way.

Orange Peel:
I've found to get much better extraction from dried Orange Peel (Bitter or Sweet) when it's ground up (e.g. spinning coffee grinder, or chop finely with chef's knife). The grinder will give you small chunks plus powder. Soak the small chunks in a small cup of hot water for about an hour, save the dust for later. Microwave occasionally to keep the temp around 120-160°F, not critical. Add the whole cup of extract together with the dust saved earlier to the boil at 5 minutes.

Wheat Flour:
Adding raw wheat flour to the boil is supposed to create "permanent" haziness. Make a slurry with a little bit of water first before adding it to the kettle, otherwise it will float on top in clumps. I've found that after cold crashing and kegging, the haziness to settle out gradually over 3 months time. The wheat beer becomes quite clear. Omitting Irish Moss or other finings may prevent that from happening, see below.

Irish Moss:
Omitting Irish Moss or other finings may help to prevent the beer from clearing eventually. See "Wheat Flour" notes above. Haven't tested that yet.

 

[orangehero]

I really like doing my witbier with all raw Soft Winter Wheat done with a cereal mash. Considering maltiness and darker color are not exactly a part of the classic style, I'm curious what you were going for with the double decoction with 20 minute boils?

Those are definitely realistic quantities for fresh spices. I've seen recipes with a whole ounce of coriander and I can't imagine that tasting like anything except a coriander bomb. Also I think the best time is to add it at flameout to preserve the volatile compounds, maybe if you boil it for a few minutes you can use more.

I'm sure this is a great recipe, but it's interesting that you won with those notes. I suppose it reflects the nature of competitions here. Everything I've read on the style praises softness and subtlety.

 

[IslandLizard]

I really like doing my witbier with all raw Soft Winter Wheat done with a cereal mash. Considering maltiness and darker color are not exactly a part of the classic style, I'm curious what you were going for with the double decoction with 20 minute boils?

Those are definitely realistic quantities for fresh spices. I've seen recipes with a whole ounce of coriander and I can't imagine that tasting like anything except a coriander bomb. Also I think the best time is to add it at flameout to preserve the volatile compounds, maybe if you boil it for a few minutes you can use more.

I'm sure this is a great recipe, but it's interesting that you won with those notes. I suppose it reflects the nature of competitions here. Everything I've read on the style praises softness and subtlety.

Thank you for the feedback and your view on the recipe.

While researching Witbier recipes and wheat processes I came across AJ's post highlighting Eric Warner's wheat decoction, so why not try it a different way? I'm all about progressiveness and invention (you should hear my music collection). The beer came out really well with lots of flavor. Not overly malty, just a richness, depth in the wheat that's not common and just works. Not sure what the SRM is, but it's not that dark.

Since it takes about 5-10 minutes to bring the wort down to 170°, yeah, I'm sure the spice additions can be moved to FO or even later, preserving more of the lighter aromas. The pulverized and soaked orange peel can shed a lot more character much quicker than tossing some large, hard and dry chunks into the boil. Those instructions never made sense to me, unless you boil them for a long time, and even then, it's not the same in the end.

That competition contained all sorts of wheat beers, including those with fruits, herbs and other adjuncts, Hefes, etc. So after all I'm not surprised she stood a fair chance to win as an able contestant. Agreed, she may not have fared as well in a strict 16A competition, with her subtler voiced, pale-straw sisters.

 

[orangehero]

Since it takes about 5-10 minutes to bring the wort down to 170°, yeah, I'm sure the spice additions can be moved to FO or even later, preserving more of the lighter aromas. The pulverized and soaked orange peel can shed a lot more character much quicker than tossing some large, hard and dry chunks into the boil. Those instructions never made sense to me, unless you boil them for a long time, and even then, it's not the same in the end.

That's an interesting method for using the dried orange peel, I don't think I've seen that before. I still haven't finished experimenting with the spices for this beer. For the last batches I have been using fresh grapefruit and orange zest at flameout, but I am curious to try the dried curaçao peel again. There's some debate about whether fresh or dried bitter curaçao peel is the best choice, although it's almost impossible to get fresh. Although it's commonly advised to avoid adding the pith, I believe the peel was used whole as a complement to the very mild hop bitterness. I do wonder whether doing the extended steep is extracting more of the bitter compounds while letting the brighter orange volatiles out especially over the course of an hour at 120°F.

If you haven't tried chamomile I like it in addition to the coriander and orange peel. It has a nice soft floral quality that complements the wheat.

 

[IslandLizard]

Thank you for the great tips, you got me thinking about this again.

Because of a strong background in chemistry I've found many documented "extraction methods" in brewing (and cooking) questionable. Maybe Alton Brown was the groundbreaker in researching and explaining common cooking techniques some 15-20 years ago. The French fry episode was a good example.

I've only seen fresh Curacao Oranges once, long, long before I knew what they really were. I've read somewhere that WholeFoods may have them when in season, but I seriously doubt they are the real ones since the crop is limited. Maybe they're Valencias. I've had Cuban oranges that may be good candidates too. If I had to choose between adding the dried chunks to the boil or a longer tepid steep, I would vote for the latter. The boil will drive off those light aroma compounds in no time. In the past I found the chunks of dried peel laying in the trub, still hard, so started looking for better extraction methods. Smaller and softer should be more efficient. I soak the Irish Moss too in an ounce or so of hot water, and add the gelatinous potion at 5'. Now that's for some clear wort!

Adding fresh zest is wonderfully fragrant and very different from dried varieties. The later you add the better they should be. I've read that boiling orange zest can cause metallic off-flavors, and may have noticed that on occasion, but not sure orange was the culprit. Just too many variables in spice beers, and molasses (brown or unrefined sugar) can give you that too. "Dry zesting" (like dry hopping) is a good way to get a lot of fresh high notes, good for some beers, but likely too much for a Wit. Or maybe just a tad, like a couple dips.

Great idea on the chamomile, I'll try that. Sounds like a great complement.

I tasted Elysian's Avatar Jasmin IPA last weekend and I liked it better than I thought I would. Too bad the company sold out. Their Blood Orange Pale is tasty too, nice when the weather's hot.

Speaking of selling out, the Blue Moon my wife ordered at our yearly outing to the Outback was the most disgusting beer I've had in a long time. I bet there was salt in it. And the color was wicked too, perhaps oxidized, hard to tell in their lighting. She's a slow drinker, so I typically finish hers and really couldn't. That was bad, we definitely should have sent it back, and graciously accept their apology. When the waitress rattled off the "beer" choices I decidedly stuck to water, which was mediocre too. They should filter at least. By the time we left, the place was... packed! Can't figure out why. It was a Monday or Tuesday, IIRC, spur of the moment.