Hey, just wanted to post an update. I let everything ferment (orange peel, corriander, and all) for two weeks in the primary. OG was spot on at 1.038 and final gravity was 1.010. When I tasted the hydro sample the bitter orange shock almost knocked my socks off. No hint of the corriander or any other flavors, probably becuase of the overpowering orange. Anyway, I was thinking that I was doomed and should have taken BierMuncher's advice to rack the beer off the orange peel into a secondary. Well, I guess that would be hard for me because I don't have a secondary (yet).
I bottled everything up with 3/4 cup of priming sugar, crossed my fingers, and hoped that the yeasties could work some magic. It's been conditioning for little over a week now at 16-17C (60-62F). I cracked one of my sampler bottles last night and it's great! The kick-me-in-the-face orange peel was gone and I could taste some of the spice from the corriander. Conditioning is far from finished, but I think with a couple more weeks this brew should turn out to be really awesome. This one is definitely going to be brewed again!
I haven't had a blue moon for about 3.5 years so it's hard for me to compare taste. I bought a bottle of import belgian witbier here called hoegarden. It was pretty good, but the one-week sampler I had was better. Especially when you consider the price of the hoegarden: $4/12oz bottle!!
I made my own partial mash version of Biermuncher's recipe here:
Pale 2-row (GER): 900g (2 lb)
Wheat malt (GER): 900g (2 lb)
Wheat DME (60% wheat/40% barley): 1000g (2.2 lb) - 15 min
Crushed corriander seed: 0.75oz (21.3g) - 15 min
Bitter orange peel: 0.75oz (21.3g) - 15 min
East Kent Goldings (5% Alpha) 1oz (28.4g) - 60min
Safbrew WB-06 (1 packet re-hydrated)
Primary: 2 weeks @ 18C (~65F)
Secondary: NONE (I don't have one yet)
Mashed in with 5.2L (1.3gal) at 74C (165.2F) for 60 minutes
Sparged with 6L (1.6gal) at 82C (179.6) for 10 minutes
Added wort to 2L (~1/2 gallon) of boiling water
Total boil volume ~12.5L (~3.3 gallons)
Topped fermenter up to 20L (~5.25gal) with spring water
Notes/thoughts in hindsight:
- Racking to a secondary after a week would probably be a good idea
- Use a filter bag on the end of the racking cane to prevent clogging
- No problems substituting wheat malt for the flaked wheat.. Though I would like to try this recipe again with flaked wheat if it becomes available.
- Crushing the corriander better might improve spice flavor
- The WB-06 did a great job. I wish liquid yeast was availabe to try out.
- I wonder if the hydro sample was really orangey because it came mainly from the top of the fermenter? Most of the orange peel was floating on the top.