Need a recipe for Blanche de Bruxells

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EdWort

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SWMBO loves this stuff. At 4.5% ABV, it is a quaffable summer beer.

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Anyone have recipe?
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Thanks!
 
Traditional Belgian Wit, no?

I would just make a brew with some unmalted wheat, pils, possibly some flaked wheat and/or oats. Hop once at 90' or 60' to get around 10-13 IBUs, throw some corriander and bitter orange peel in at flame out and ferment upper 60s/low 70s with WY3944. Also, Saccharomyces has a good Traditional Wit recipe here - you even commented, but I don't think you brewed it.
 
Traditional Belgian Wit, no?

I would just make a brew with some unmalted wheat, pils, possibly some flaked wheat and/or oats. Hop once at 90' or 60' to get around 10-13 IBUs, throw some corriander and bitter orange peel in at flame out and ferment upper 60s/low 70s with WY3944. Also, Saccharomyces has a good Traditional Wit recipe here - you even commented, but I don't think you brewed it.

Thanks. I have not tried his yet, but will try to persuade Saccharomyces for a beer swap. I appreciate the advice.
 
Thanks. I have not tried his yet, but will try to persuade Saccharomyces for a beer swap. I appreciate the advice.

Right now I have the Tejas Wit for summer... I'd say if you took that recipe and knocked down the gravity a bit (1.045 or so), kept the orange peel the same and went with 1/2oz of Coriander rather than my 3/4 oz you would be pretty close to Blanche de Bruxelles. Though there is something in that brew I haven't figured out yet, something with the spices... There is definitely something in there that makes that beer stand out from the crowd.
 
Ed, any luck with your attempt? Just yesterday, I thought about brewing this exact clone, and I'm not having much luck digging up recipes...
 
What do the flaked oats do for the beer? Are they pretty standard for this sort of beer? And the pale and pils combo...just your preference I'm guessing?

The ingredients on the bottle say wheat, barley, and sugar. This has the potential to be an extremely inexpensive beer at 4.5% it seems. It even specifies that the wheat is in fact unmalted, and that it accounts for 40% of the bill....though i'm not sure how that would be figured in with the sugar. My estimate grain bill at 4.5% for 5 gal

3 lb unmalted wheat
4 lb belgian pils
.5 lb sugar

This beer has very low bitterness, so like Pseudo Chef said 10 -13 ibu.

I've got .5 oz Hallertau at 60, 1 oz Saaz at 30, and .5 hallertau at 10 or 5...they both have similar AA content, so they would be pretty interchangable throughout. about 14 ibu.

Haven't thought much on what to do with the spices...not sure how much orange to use, but about 1 tsp of crushed corriander at the 10 minute point has been my rule in the past.

I just had Blanche De Bruxelles today for maybe the 3rd time, and boy it hit the spot after a hard bike ride. I think I'm gonna ride myself on over to pick up grains for this now as a matter of fact.
 
Pop it in at the same time as your peel and spice.

I do this 10mins from flame out, some people use flame out. I prefer the deeper flavour you get from 10mins in the bol.
 
Has anyone in this thread actually brewed a reasonable clone?
Ed, have you nailed it yet?
Blanche de Bruxelles is an outstanding beer and I want it on tap for summer!
Keep this thread going....
 
Bump. I had this beer in Hawaii and I'm in love. Anyone figure out the clone for this? Also what creates that distinctive taste??
 
So I've tried my aforementioned recipe, and here's the scoop:

I used malted wheat, which was not right. I believe it is important to use unmalted wheat, and I've heard you can even just use white flour? Let me know about that one.

Mine lacked the sweet lightness and pop, or zing that B. de B, has. Not sweet enough, weird residual protiens. Here are some thoughts.

I used the peel of one fresh orange. Not nearly enough. I have an entire jar of bitter orange preserves that I plan to add at least half of to my next attempt. The thing that gets me, is the orange ingredient listed is Curcao...isn't that just some cheap orange liqueur? I figure the orange flavor can be obtained any number of ways.

Not sure about the use of a protien rest...I did one, and it resulted in perhaps an overattenuated beer. You want some chill haze, and I think a protien rest reduces that.

I used wlp 400. What resulted was not a sweet beer, so (correct me if I'm wrong) I am inclined to think that the sweet flavors don't come so much from the yeast, but the spices, right? Otherise, I totally recommend a different yeast. I'm not sure what all is characteristic of a belgian wit yeast.

I hope someone gives this another shot.
Cheers!
 
Any updates on this? I'm brewing for a wedding soon and I think this brew would be perfect to have on tap...

Any conclusions?
 
Wlp400 gives a sour/tangy flavor. I've noticed in trying to perfect my traditional wit recipe that I have to hop a lot lower than I predicted because the yeast really shines with more residual sweetness in the beer.

The chamomile is a good idea. Some people believe the is Pierre Celis (of Hoegaarden fame) secret ingredient and it's used in Great Lakes Brewery's Holy Moses Wit where it really shines.

Also, I strongly encourage the use of unmalted wheat. This is one deceptively hard beer to make well. Now that I've gotten to work on it, I've noticed that very very few brewers can nail this one.
 
Are there any reasonably close recipes you've hit yet? I'd love to play with this one and nail it hard, but since I'm doing a big wedding brew with it -- I'd like to fast forward a bit and piggyback some other's research to nail something reasonably close. Stuff is oddly delicious.
 
As opposed to starting an identical new thread, I'm going to bump this 3 year old one... sorry in advance. I would love to know if anybody has made a decent clone of this beer? I have a traditional Belgian wit in the fermenter right now and wondering how close it might be. My recipe is below:

5.25 gallon batch
4.5# Belgian Pilsner Malt
4.5# Flaked Wheat
0.5# Flaked Oats
0.5# Rice Hulls

1.75 oz. Tettnang (2.4% AA, 60 min)

2 packets Chamomile Tea (5 min)
1 oz. Bitter Orange Peel (5 min)
0.5 oz. Coriander (5 min

WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale

Protein Rest at 119 F(30 min) (was aiming for 122)
Sacc Rest at 154 F (75 min)

Boil 90 min

Fermentation ~67 F

Thoughts??
 
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