Belgian Wit Beer

[johnsonbrew]

This is my first attempt at a partial mash, everything up to this point had been specialty grains and extracts. I was looking for a Blue Moon clone and found one that sounded pretty good. I have seen everything from 1/2 ounce of orange peel and coriander up to 1 oz. This recipe called for .75 oz of each. After the boil and taking my OG, as usual I tasted the wort to see what it was like. The only flavors that came through were the Malt and sugar flavors, I did not notice any orange or coriander. I do not have a sophisticated palate to really seperate flavors but I expected some orange to come through. Will these flavors appear after the fermentable sugars are gone allowing some of those other flavors to appear? Is it worth any adding some of those flavors in the fermenter like dry hopping or will that be too much?

 

[wfowlks]

When did you add them? When I used orange peel and coriander, I added 0.5 oz of each at 5 min left in the boil, then at the end of the boil, and let it sit for 30 min before cooling. That is when I was able to taste/smell it.

 

[johnsonbrew]

I added them the last 5 min, but nothing at the end, it sat and cooled for 30 min in an ice bath but then into the fermenter straining it through the grain bag. I was thinking I should not have strained it to keep the orange and coriander in the beer while it fermented but it was an after thought.

 

[wfowlks]

when I add those, I just let it sit for 30 min before I cool it. The residual heat of the wort will allow for better flavor and aroma absorption.

 

[johnsonbrew]

Do you know if "dry hopping" with orange peel and coriander will do anything? If there is no orange flavor after fermentation, I may just try it anyway, I just dont know how much to use, I dont want it to be too overwhelming.

 

[wfowlks]

I believe the dry-hopping of orange peel will be for aroma, but not taste. You just have to be careful if you get the zest yourself, or a safer thing would be to buy it from a LHBS.

See this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/dry-hopped-bitter-orange-peel-239330/

They had said that the coriander dry hopping did not add anything.

 

[johnsonbrew]

I have a bunch left over from what I purchased at the LHBS, and that makes sense about the aroma since your hop flavor comes from the boil and not from dry hopping, although aroma should enhance the flavor.....right?

 

[wfowlks]

Only so long as people sniff the beer beforehand. There is also the train of thought of the connection between the olfactories. The smell will bring it to mind but not compensate for a complete lack of orange. Also, keep in mind that the flavor will be more pronounced once all the fermentables get fermented out, and it is a bit dryer. That's why I would wait till day 10 to 14 to try it before dry hopping with orange peel.

Long post short:
Enhance Yes, Compensate No

 

[johnsonbrew]

That was my plan, let it ferment for 14 days, take a gravity reading and taste it to see where it was at. At that point I was wondering if there is anything else I could do to enhance the taste, I suppose I can always just add an orange slice like always when drinking this type of beer to give it more orange tang. I guess I was just expecting more out of the flavor when the wort was chilled and the OG was taken......it just seemed to be missing those flavors, however it was probably the sweetest wort I had tasted thus far and that may have something to do with it.

 

[wfowlks]

You could add a small amount of orange juice, it would be comparable to racking on oranges. Or you could just rack on oranges, or throw the oranges in the fermentor, will take care of your zest etc. Just be carefull to sanitize them first with some starsan or the like.

I would suggest 1 lb for a slight orange flavor. It will also induce a second fermentation period.

 

[wfowlks]

So what did you end up doing?

 

[MichaelBrock]

In the witbier recipe in BCS, Jamil suggests making a "tea" of the coriander, orange peel, and/or chamomile and adding it to the fermenter if you find that the flavors are not strong enough. I followed his recipe (except for the chamomile...he says that he uses 3 tea bags but the recipe calls for .03oz which is much less than 3 tea bags, so I used 2 bags) but I couldn't taste any of the three flavors going into the fermenter. If I get close to bottling and still don't have any orange or coriander flavor I'll probably add as much again by boiling the zest & coriander in water, straining out the solids, and adding the tea to the fermenter.

 

[johnsonbrew]

I have not done anything with it yet, its been a week in the fermenter and the air lock is still bubbling about every 8 seconds. This is by far the longest lasting active fermentaion I have had so far, usually after 4 or 5 days is slows way down to every 30 seconds or less. When it hits that point I will check gravity and sample and then decide what to do at that point. I have until the first of July to get it ironed out, this is going to be the 4th of July beer that I am going to keg.

 

[kerant]

Wow! and I thought it was just mine. Going steady on say 7 with a good krausen still.

 

[Randolf]

Early this year I brewed a "Summertime Ale. I used (2)3.3# munton's wheat LME,and 1 1/2 0z. Willamette Hops. I acutally brewed (2) 2.5g gallon batches,so I could go the stovetop route.After everything was cooled down and pitched,I added 1 oz. of McCormack's Lemon Extract directly to the fermenter. Let me tell you,WOW,what a D-licious,Lemony,fruity,light ale. My only regret is that I should have used more flavoring hops.I will next time. Seriously,this removes the problems with adding zest etc. I am going to brew another batch using McCormack's Orange Extract and coriander,and try for a Lune de Bleu brew.

 

[johnsonbrew]

how much extract did you put in? And when did you add it to the fermenter?

 

[Randolf]

I added a 1oz. bottle down through the airlock hole about an hour after I pitched the yeast. This stuff is potent. I had tried using 3oz.of Brewer's best cherry flavoring in a 2.5 gal. batch and can't taste it at all. I like my fruit taste to be strong,and this lemon does the trick.