Spelt Witbier?

[Protos]

Gentlemen, I'm planning the grist for my next Witbier and I want to try 50% Pilsner / 50% unmalted Spelt.
I've used unmalted Spelt once, in a Saison, in a small quantity (10 to 15%). Can't remember any specific flavour from it.
What's your thoughts: will unmalted Spelt at such a proportion differ significantly from unmalted Wheat in the finished beer?
I don't have too much experience with that grain adjunct.

Also: what do you think regarding adding spices to Witbier? Is that an obligatory, fundamental feature of the style, without which a Witbier can't be called a Witbier?
I want to try a new hop in this batch (a rare experimental South African 92P2/4 hop, said to have celery, parsley, black pepper and garlic notes) and I don't think it would blend nice with coriander and orange.
I'm worrying if a lightning would strike me if I brew my Witbier with no spices.

 

[monkeymath]

I've only used flaked spelt in brewing, and honestly those flakes don't taste like anything. Spelt is very closely related to wheat, and I generally consider the differences (culinary or health-wise) to be overstated (except for the fact that spelt is a nightmare when baking bread). Since spelt malt is usually much more expensive, I haven't used it yet. In particular, I wouldn't expect a great difference from using spelt in place of wheat in a witbier. If I were to go all fancy here, I'd probably use something like einkorn or emmer wheat.

That said, I know that Jay Goodwin from The Rare Barrel uses a certain percentage of spelt malt in place of wheat to reduce a certain flavour he associates with wheat, and referred to spelt as "less wheat-y wheat" (on his Podcast "The Sour Hour"). This may or may not be specific to long-term aged mixed culture beers.

Moreover, there's the famous Saison d'Epeautre by Blaugies which uses a good amount of spelt.

So, yeah, there's probably something to it.

Regarding the necessity of spices: this is a Belgian inspired beer, and Belgians don't give two shits about styles or guidelines, so just follow the idea of the beer that you have in your head iirc witbier is a rather ill-defined style anyways, with basically only a single model (Hoegaarden).
I have to say, though, that this description of your hops does not sound all that appealing to me, and quite far from what I associate with a Wit.

 

[Protos]

Thank you for the extended reply!
"Less wheaty than wheat" is an important notion and it actually answers my question. I definitely don't want my Witbier less wheaty, so probably I should choose a different option to learn my Spelt rather than to substitute it for wheat in a Wit. I think I better try it in a Farmhouse Ale, along with using Lalbrew Farmhouse yeast for the first time.
I've brewed Saison d'Epeautre, it had 15% Spelt in it. Couldn't tell the difference between Spelt and Wheat as far as I remember.

The hop choise is a purposeful one. "Celery" description promises there still will be something sligtly redolent of Coriander in the brew, even though I'm not using spices. And "parsley and garlic" sounds to me like "dank", which I don't mind and which I'm probably not sensitive to anyway (never tasted onion or garlic from Summit or dankness from Columbus).