That next-to-last sentence is crucial to the whole affair:
I think he also uses some wheat flour and talks about using both flaked wheat and oats along with Pilsner 2-Row.
Witbier grists are more complicated than many homebrewers suspect - it ain't just a Hefeweizen grist with different yeast and orange peel. The award-winning Witbier I used to brew professionally used Pils malt, raw wheat, wheat malt, torrefied wheat, and flaked oats. Oh, and lots of rice hulls.
That's what homebrewers should look at, not spices.
Spices don't have anything to do with the flavors you find objectionable. I defy you to find any packaging brewery which has the time or manpower to zest the hundreds of pounds of oranges needed to equal the weight of dried peel. I brewed professional Wit with dried peel, I recommend dried peel to professionals in my consultancy, and also recommend them to homebrewers because it's what the benchmark examples of the style use. If you're aiming for Hoegaarden or Blanche de Chambly, dig out the bitter Curacao peel, guys, 'cos that's what
they use.
There are other things in play here, too, like technique and other odd ingredients. For example, a touch of lactic acid in the mash goes a long way. So does a bit of star anise in the spice mix, or using both sweet and bitter dried Curacao peel.
Homebrewers as a rule tend to use too much hops in Wit. When I brewed mine by the 5 or 10bbl batch, it never got much above an hour-long simmer, and I only simmered a touch of noble hops for 30 minutes. We're talking 6-7IBU here. Most of the balancing bitterness and all of the spicy flavor came from where it
should come from - the
spices. Hops do not mix well with that spice profile, and will impart an objectionable flavor, guaranteed.
I am a bit passionate about traditional Witbier; can you tell?
Cheers!
Bob