Uh oh. Grain to glass orange wit in two weeks?

[bfinleyui]

I know most hefe/wit are best young, so I'm hoping this is possible after procrastinating on a brew i promised a friend's wife after she had her child...

I need to kick out an orange wit in two weeks. I have kegging, so burst carbing is do-able (just gotta be waaaay careful not to overcarb it)...

Basic recipe:

6.6# Wheat LME
1.5oz saaz @ 60
1.0oz EKG @ 20
.5oz saaz @ 10

1oz coriander @ 5
5 oranges of zest @ 20
fruit of 5 oranges, steeped high enough to sanitize, added to primary

tempted to toss in a little cinnamon toward the end for something different.

Probably T-58 dry yeast

So my current precautions to make this go as quickly as possible
- Temp control can be whatever, probably keep in the 65-66 range to keep it firing off quickly. Belgians can deal with the flavors pretty easily.
- Two packets of yeast?
- Crazy amounts of aeration before pitching
- 12 days in primary, cold crash overnight so it goes cold into the keg, then blast it and shake the hell out of it.

Anything else I can do to push this along? Is 5 oranges enough? Do I bring them over to the keg as well, or take them out after primary?

Thanks

 

[KegWrangler]

I'd say 68 degrees for 4 days then 72-74 for the next 8 days to finish strong and cold crash as you stated. Belgian's like it a little warmer than the average ale yeast.

If you put it on CO2 at 30psi for 24-36 hours it should be carbonated pretty close to 2.4 volumes more reliably then the shaking method.

I'd leave out the cinnamon - it can be tricky in a beer. The yeast and Saaz should give you a bit of spiciness on their own.

 

[thisisbeer]

No cinnamon. Amounts are tricky and you may wish you could let it age some if you don't add the right amount of cinnamon. The simple beers are the ones that turn around fast. Keep it simple. Don't time the fermentation. Ferment at about 68 and when you get close (10 gravity points) to your FG then crank it up to ~72 so it will finish strong. When it hits FG cold crash overnight and move it to the keg so it can sit on gas for a couple of days. You still will be required to shake it but it gives the beer some time to mellow under CO2. You wont be near as worried about over carbing it. You can dial the carb level in.