Hoppy witbier

[joshesmusica]

Hello fellow brewers!
My next planned brew is a witbier, I love the flavors and aroma from hops. Before I started brewing my beer of choice was boulevard wheat. After I learned about home brewing I started asking all my home brewing friends if it was possible I make a hoppy wheat. They all turned me down saying it was two clashing styles. A couple weeks later I came across boulevard 80-acre! Love it, cloned it a few times.
Now my wife wants a witbier for the winter. Just wondering if anybody's had experience late- or dry-hopping a witbier.

 

[joshesmusica]

No?

 

[char005]

That would essentailly be a "white IPA" as it seems to be called. I know some people who do this prefer fermenting it with a mix of a wit yeast with a less phenolic strain like chico to cut down on the yeast character of a wit yeast. I wouldn't be scared to try it if i were you. I liked my attempt at it last year.

 

[Brew_G]

Give it a whirl. The worst that could happen is you have a beer that's fighting itself as it goes down your throat.

 

[m00ps]

I love white-IPAs. I;ve done 3 within the past 2 months and they turn out great if you get the more citrusy and spicy types of hops. Last one I did, I decided to try blending the Conan yeast I use for IPAs and my usual wit yeast. Totally blew my mind, I'd definintely recommend trying out brewing white IPA. I usually formulate it as a witbier grain bill with an added 0.5-0.75lb cane sugar to dry it out and get it to typical IPA strength. I usually keep the coriander and orange peel too, but that's just me.

 

[joshesmusica]

awesome. sounds like it's definitely gonna be my next brew. Here's my partial mash recipe, if you guys wouldn't mind helping me shape it:

.5 kg Pilsner 2-row - 11.5%
.5 kg wheat, flaked - 11.5%
.25 kg oats, flaked - 5.7%
15 g Saaz - 60 mins - 7.4 IBUs
20 g Saaz - 5 mins - 2.0 IBUs
7 g Orange peels (sweet) - 5 mins
3.5 g Coriander seed - 5 mins
1.5 kg wheat lme - 5 mins - 34.5%
1 kg light dme - 5 mins - 23.0%
.45 kg sucrose - 5 mins - 13.8%
10 g Saaz - steep/whirlpool - 20 mins - 1.5 IBUs
5 g Citra - steep/whirlpool - 20 mins - 2.2 IBUs
WLP400 wibier yeast
10 g Saaz - dryhop - 5 days
5 g Citra - dryhop - 5 days

Batch size - 19L
Est. OG - 1.050
Est. FG - 1.008
Est ABV - 5.5%
18.5 IBUs
8.3 EBC

I'm not entirely familiar with all the steps in mashing, so if anyone has good recommendations on times and temps for this one that would be amazing! It'll be the BIAB method.

 

[m00ps]

I'd definitely reccomend just a regular single step 60 min mash at 150 (to get a dry body common with IPAs and wits) with a 10min mashout at 168. The grain bill looks pretty solid, but I would definitely bump up the hop additions by like at least double if you really want a White IPA. I usually have 1oz/28g of a high aa% hop at the start, and then at least 6oz/168g more of hops before it reaches the fermentor

 

[joshesmusica]

thanks for the advice on the mash. i was thinking on the lower end because of the reason you mentioned.
as far as the hops, i guess that's why i would rather call it a hoppy witbier. i only really want the hops to be a little more accentuated than they would in a typical witbier, but not quite so much so that they become the focus point.

 

[m00ps]

oh, for the coriander and orange, you could definitely bump that up. I usually see 1/2 to 1 oz of crushed coriander and 1oz orange peel for wits. It still has a subtle flavor, but definitely is detectable at these amounts for me.

 

[joshesmusica]

ok thanks! i've actually been wondering about those amounts!

 

[joshesmusica]

I'd definitely reccomend just a regular single step 60 min mash at 150 (to get a dry body common with IPAs and wits) with a 10min mashout at 168.

Can you give me some advice on how much water i should be using for the partial mash? I'm doing a 19L batch.

 

[m00ps]

Can you give me some advice on how much water i should be using for the partial mash? I'm doing a 19L batch.

Hmm you may be better off looking around for a thread on it, I've just done full volume all-grain batches, but I've seen people using 1-2 gallons for the mini mash then you add the rest of the water needed later. You just need enough to completely have the malts submerged in the water and dissolve any DME you are adding. The consistency should look a lot like oatmeal thats a bit on the watery side

 

[joshesmusica]

can you use too much water in a partial mash? i found one article talking about using 1.25 quarts water per pound of grain. does that sound like enough? if i worked that out to my scale, i have 1.25 kg (or 2.75lbs) grains, so then i should be doing 3.26 L (or 3.44 quarts) of water?
also beersmith is saying i don't need to sparge. do you think that's true?