Extract Belgian Witbier - for my first comp.

[SeamusMac]

Hey all,

I'm going to be brewing my first Belgian-style Witbier for a competition being held by a local microbrewery and HBS. Here's my draft recipe that I've been working on, any comments on how I could improve the recipe would be greatly appreciated.

Preboil:

4.5 gallons of water
0.1 pound of 10L crystal malt (placed in water when heating begins and removed once the temperature reaches 170*F)
0.5 pound of flaked oats (placed in water when heating begins and removed once the temperature reaches 170*F)

Boil:

60 minutes:
3 pounds of 60/40 wheat/barley dried malt extract
1 ounce of Tettnanger hops pellets

15 minutes:
3 pounds of pilsen dried malt extract
0.25 pound cane sugar
1 tablespoon of flour

End of Boil:

0.25 ounce of Saaz hops pellets
0.5 ounce of ground coriander
Zest from 4 medium oranges

Top up to 5 gallons and ferment with Wyeast 3463 (Forbidden Fruit) for approximately 2 weeks and bottle.

Changes made in red.

I'd also like to add a small amount of lactic acid at bottling time (perhaps 5mL) but I've read that it take a long time to blend properly with the other components of the beer's flavour.
Thoughts?

 

[hoppymonkey]

I'd add about 8oz of light crystal malt.( put in a hop bag and add and take out same time as the oats) Are you set on that type of yeast? what type of flavor are you wanting at the end? yeast is everything in anything that "belgian". Not saying that is a bad choice. I have never used it before myself.

 

[SeamusMac]

I'd add about 8oz of light crystal malt.( put in a hop bag and add and take out same time as the oats) Are you set on that type of yeast? what type of flavor are you wanting at the end? yeast is everything in anything that "belgian". Not saying that is a bad choice. I have never used it before myself.

I was considering some crystal malt but I don't want to darken the beer, I'll do some reading into how heavily a small quantity of light crystal malt will affect the colour.

The LHBS ran out of Wyeast 3944 (Belgian Witbier) and all of the smackpacks of that strain coming in their next shipment have been spoken for, so I checked out the Wyeast style guide and 3463 (Forbidden Fruit) was right at the top of the list. Sam Calagione also recommends this type of yeast as appropriate for the style.

Thanks for the tips hoppymonkey!

 

[SeamusMac]

I used the tastybrew.com calculator to do a short evaluation of my recipe and I believe it's looking good, except for the FG. As you can see below, I added a quarter pound of cane sugar to try and dry it out a little bit but I doubt I can get better than 75% attenuation with either strain of Witbier yeast and I'm not too keen on adding more table sugar... I also removed the dried bitter orange peels from the recipe as the hops already have it weighing on the heavy side of the IBU range for the style and the brewery that is hosting this event has never been known for bitter beers. Thoughts?

 

[hoppymonkey]

Looks good, but don't surprised if your FG ends up a little higher. Extract has more unfermentables in it and I had a real hard time getting much better than 1.020 the whole time I was extract brewing. I like the hop combo. I think I will go with something similiar for a hefe next. Enjoy and good luck with the contest.

 

[SeamusMac]

Looks good, but don't surprised if your FG ends up a little higher. Extract has more unfermentables in it and I had a real hard time getting much better than 1.020 the whole time I was extract brewing. I like the hop combo. I think I will go with something similiar for a hefe next. Enjoy and good luck with the contest.

I usually get similar results unfortunately, but I'm going to use some "yeast energizer" which has helped in the past. If that doesn't get me to a FG that I find suitable then I'm going to split the batch in half and pitch some Notty.

 

[hoppymonkey]

can you post a pic and recipe for that blood orange hefe you have on tap. I was planning on something similiar next week.( BUT AG)

 

[SeamusMac]

can you post a pic and recipe for that blood orange hefe you have on tap. I was planning on something similiar next week.( BUT AG)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/blood-orange-hefeweizen-98579/

Check that thread out, it has tons of great info (including the recipe) and pics. I don't have a camera at the moment so I'm incapable of taking a picture of my Hefe, although it looks exactly like the picture on the first page of the linked thread. Also, Pivot did an AG version of the recipe.

 

[david83]

i brewed a belgium blonde using the wyeast forbidon fruit and have sampled a bottle 2 weeks of conditioning so still pretty green but you will be very happy using that strain.