First beer recipe - Looking for input

[mbarone00]

Hi, I am developing a recipe for wheat/witbier beer. This is the first brew that I am not using a brew kit for. I researched various recipes and came up with this.

Grain Steep
1 lbs. White Wheat Malt
8 oz. Cara-Pils
8 oz. Flaked Oats

Fermentables
3.15 lbs. Wheat LME
3.15 lbs. Pilsner LME

Hop/Spice Schedule (overall 60 minutes)
1 oz. Select Spaltz 60 min
1 oz. Saaz 40 min
1 oz. Coriander Seed 15 min
1 oz. Sweet Orange Peel 10 min

Yeast
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

Est OG 1.047
Est FG 1.012


This will be a 5 gallon batch. Is there anything that might seem redundant in the grain steep? Should I do a secondary ferment? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[m00ps]

I think to be more to style, you should sub wheat extract for the light extract. Witbiers are like 50% wheat usually, with a good deal of flaked wheat or raw unmalted wheat

The carapils you probably dont need if you have the usual amounts of flaked ingredients. They will provide enough head retention.

Last thign id do is move the 40min saaz to much later in the boil. Maybe 10min or flameout so you can actually get some appreciable character from it

 

[mbarone00]

Thanks, I made a typo when creating this, Light LME should have been Wheat LME.

 

[m00ps]

whats your planned fermentation temperature?

 

[mbarone00]

About 66 degrees

 

[m00ps]

good luck! Ive found with most belgian strains, you definitely want to let it warm up after a week or so of fermentation. I usually pitch it around there and let it free rise

 

[mbarone00]

Updated Recipe

Grain Steep
1 lbs. Flaked Wheat
8 oz. Flaked Oats

Fermentables
6.3 lbs. Wheat LME


Hop/Spice Schedule (overall 60 minutes)
1 oz. Select Spaltz 60 min
1 oz. Saaz 15 min
.5 oz. Coriander Seed 15 min
1 oz. Sweet Orange Peel 10 min

Yeast
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

Est OG 1.047
Est FG 1.012

 

[Qhrumphf]

As far as your steeping, you're going to need to pay a little more attention than you normally would, as both the wheat malt and the flaked oats are starchy and will need mashing. Wheat malt is enzymatic so you're good there, it just needs time at the right temp to make sure it's own starch, and the starches from the oats, are properly converted. Rather than steeping the grains in a couple gallons, steep them in about 0.75 gallons (3 quarts), and keep the temp between 150-155 for about 45-60 minutes (longer probably better), and then if you'd like you can rinse the grains out with more hot water afterwards. That will get you where you need to be.

I didn't run numbers, so I'm not sure what your IBUs are, but for a Witbier you could probably cut anything but a 60 minute bittering hop addition.

 

[Yooper]

Updated Recipe

Grain Steep
1 lbs. Flaked Wheat
8 oz. Flaked Oats

Fermentables
6.3 lbs. Wheat LME


Hop/Spice Schedule (overall 60 minutes)
1 oz. Select Spaltz 60 min
1 oz. Saaz 15 min
.5 oz. Coriander Seed 15 min
1 oz. Sweet Orange Peel 10 min

Yeast
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

Est OG 1.047
Est FG 1.012

You can't steep flaked grains- they must be mashed with a base malt. Your first recipe is better that way- you can hold the wheat malt and the oats together at 150-155 degrees for an hour, and that would be a mash. You definitely don't need carapils, so that can be left out. The wheat LME is a great choice- most are 35-50% wheat so that would be great for a witbier.

I'm not able to talk about the spices, though- I don't like spiced beers so I haven't tried that but the amounts look ok.

 

[mbarone00]

Great, I am going to remove the cara-pils and mash instead of steep. Are the quantities of the mash and LME decent? (1 pound of both flaked oat and white wheat malt, and 6 pounds of wheat LME) Would it be beneficial to add flaked wheat or should I stick to the oats? I also removed the 40 minute hop addition and put at 60 minutes. I want this beer to have a little more hops than most witbiers. Lastly, should I just stick to primary fermentation and about how long should it sit in there? Thanks

 

[Qhrumphf]

With mashing, you need to make sure that your grains have enough combined diastatic (enzymatic) power to handle the conversion. Flaked and unmalted grains have no diastatic power at all, you need malted grains (and the amount of enzymes there varies pretty widely depending on the malt), meaning that there needs to be enough malt grains to provide enzymes for the whole thing. Most wheat malt (contrary to very common misconception) is highly enzymatic, on par with pale and pils malt, so I'd say as long as there's an equivalent weight of your wheat malt to all the other grains, you should be fine. I would suggest using 1 lb wheat malt, 0.5 lb flaked oats, and 0.5 lb flaked wheat. If you're looking for some hop flavor/aroma, add it at maybe 5-10 minutes, and not 40 minutes. I prefer my Witbiers with no late hops personally, but a little bit isn't out of place as long as it's subtle.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

My two cents will be that I think the coriander addition needs to be more like 10 to get good flavor from it. It's a good amount though.

 

[mbarone00]

Thanks for the information, I'll follow your recommendations.

Updated the recipe:

Mash
1 lbs. White Wheat Malt
8 oz. Flaked Wheat
8 oz. Flaked Oats

Fermentables
6.3 lbs. Wheat LME

Hop/Spice Schedule (overall 60 minutes)
1 oz. Select Spalt 60 min
1 oz. Saaz 60 min
1/2 oz. Motueka 10 min
1/4 oz. Coriander Seed 10 min
1/2 oz. Sweet Orange Peel 10 min

Yeast
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

 

[mbarone00]

I brewed this last night and I am pretty excited with how it initially turned out. I tweaked a few things with the recipe and added a few extra ingredients toward the end.

I added 3-5 clove buds with the muslin bag along with the coriander seeds and I also added 1/2 oz of basil during the last 5 minutes of the boil. Also did an additional 1/2 oz of motueka hops at flameout. I allowed the muslin bag with basil, clove, orange peel, and coriander to steep for about 10 minutes and during some of the cool own.

I tried some of the wort before pitching the yeast, it had a nice mild, sweet wheat flavor with a slight basil aroma. There was no clove taste or aroma but I am hoping that comes through with the yeast later on down the road.