Category Archives: witbier

Belgian Wit

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I’ve brewed lots of fruit-based witbier recipes, and plenty of things with Belgian wit yeast, but I’ve only done a “real” witbier recipe once! BYO magazine recently featured the witbier style, so I brewed a slightly modified version recently.

Belgian Wit

  • 5.5 lb. Barke pilsner malt (Weyermann)
  • 5 lb. soft red flaked wheat (Briess)
  • 0.5 lb. flaked oats
  • 0.25 lb. Munich II malt (Weyermann)
  • 1 oz. Edelweiss hop pellets (5.1% alpha), 30 minute boil
  • 9 g chamomile flowers (dried), 5 minute boil
  • 1.5 oz. lemon zest (fresh), 5 minute boil
  • 0.4 oz. coriander seed, 5 minute boil
  • 1 pkg. wit Belgian wit-style ale yeast (Lallemand)

Target Parameters

  • 1.050 s.g., 1.009 f.g., 5.3% abv, 14 IBU, 4 SRM
  • Full-volume mash, no sparge, at 149° for 60 minutes
  • Claremont tap water, neutralized to remove carbonates.

Procedure

  • I heated 7.5 gallons of water to 155°, adding 6.25 mL of 88% lactic acid to remove the carbonates.
  • I mashed in to hit a mash temperature of 149°, adding 3.5 mL of 88% lactic acid to adjust pH. I held the mash here for 60 minutes with recirculation, before raising to 168° for a 10 minute mash out.
  • After removing the grains, I had a total of 6.25 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.041, for 63% mash efficiency.
  • I brought the kettle to a boil, boiling for an extra 15 minutes before adding hops and spices per the recipe, in order to raise the gravity. After 75 minutes total of the boil, I turned off the heat and chilled to 80°. I transferred the wort to a fermenter and chilled it the rest of the way down to 62° before pitching the yeast.
  • I brewed the beer on 17 September 2022. Starting gravity was 1.045.
  • I pitched the yeast at 62°, let it free rise to 64° and held there for the first three days of fermentation. I did all of this with open fermentation, putting a piece of foil over the hole in the fermenter lid rather than using an airlock or blowoff tube.
  • On 20 September 2022 (three days into fermentation), I added a blowoff tube and let the fermentation free rise to 72°.
  • I kegged the beer on 30 September 2022. It had a final gravity of 1.012, for 4.4% abv.

Tasting

  • Appearance
    • Straw colored, hazy beer with a fluffly and persistent white bead.
  • Aroma
    • Light chamomile and hay aroma; slightly tart character to it.
  • Flavor
    • Very refreshing! There is a bit of spice; the coriander is faintly present, and chamomile comes through on the back end of each taste, but is definitely more prominent. Coriander provides a pleasant sweetness. Medium-low bitterness; maybe even a bit too much? There is a hint of citrus flavor. The malt flavor is fairly low, with a doughy and slightly grainy character if anything.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Light body, highly carbonated, smooth finish, off-dry. It is almost a bit too dry.
  • Would I Brew This Again?
    • I like this recipe overall! It could use a bit more coriander, but the chamomile is delightful. It gives a fresh-mown hay quality that is quite interesting. The beer is a bit more dry than I like for this style; some more oats could help with that. The yeast character is okay, but not exceptional. I might like a bit more from the yeast, and suspect an increase in fermentation temperature could help. A little more haze would also be nice, and slightly less bitterness. The beer is quite refreshing, but not perfect. The beer clarified a bit after a few weeks from the initial tasting, and is still super interesting in flavor. The chamomile helps to make this a fall beer, rather than just something for a summer afternoon!
  • Overall
    • 6/10

The Ones That Got Away…

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For a variety of reasons, I haven’t been able to blog about every single batch I brewed in 2018. Many of the ones that didn’t make the cut were repeat brewings of successful recipes. Because I’m not likely to get all of them with full blog posts at this stage, I’m giving myself semi-amnesty by listing them with brief comments.

  • Cerveza de Jamaica 1.1
    • This was a rebrew of the first version, which I really liked. Version 1.1 was modified very slightly to add a little more hibiscus and a little more orange peel, and the result was an incredibly tasty beer!
  • Double IPA / Hoppy Blonde Ale
    • This was an experiment with parti-gyle techniques, co-brewed with a friend. The double IPA ended up at around 7.8% abv, and was fairly tasty. The blonde ale rounded out at 4.6% abv, and was also pretty nice. The experiment was a lot of work on brew day, but a fun attempt.
  • Raspberry Belgian 2018
    • I rebrewed a house favorite recipe for a beer festival, and thus didn’t really get to taste the final result (sadly). Everything on the process was tasty, though, so I’ll be doing this one again too.
  • Bavarica Session IPA
    • This one was pretty disastrous! The flavors clashed horribly (never again will I use Munich malt in a session IPA), and I dumped most of the batch.
  • Grab Bag IPA
    • Basically to use up a bunch of ingredients. Nothing memorable here, although it was pretty drinkable.
  • Grapefruit Wheat Ale
    • I don’t have many notes on this, other than that I used Amoretti grapefruit craft puree for some of the flavoring.

Beer Tasting: Cerveza de Jamaica

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IMG_20180706_162520I kegged this batch on 12 May 2018. It has been on tap for awhile now, and I’ve really been enjoying it. Better do a tasting before it’s all gone.

Cerveza de Jamaica

  • The Basics
    • 1.048 s.g., 1.011 f.g., 4.8% abv, 11 IBU, 3 SRM
  • Appearance
    • Pours with a tall and dense pink head, which persists wonderfully as the beer is consumed. The beer itself is a purplish pink color and slightly hazy. The beer has cleared up considerably since it first went on tap.
  • Aroma
    • Hibiscus, with a bit of tartness and spice behind that.
  • Flavor
    • Tart, with a slight hibiscus note next to a smooth and subtle maltiness.
  • Mouthfeel
    • Fairly light-bodied and highly carbonated, with a medium dry finish.
  • Would I brew this again?
    • Yes! This is a wonderful beer, and perfectly refreshing for the current warm weather. In tasting opinions from other folks, it was suggested to up the hibiscus just a touch (to help it come through more distinctly in the taste) and also to add a bit more citrus character. To this end, I’m going to increase the amount of hibiscus in my next batch, and also up the citrus peel.
  • Overall
    • 9/10

Cerveza de Jamaica

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I’m feeling experimental, and I’m feeling summer-y, and I need some good homebrew to sip on the porch on a warm Saturday afternoon. I discovered agua de Jamaica (a hibiscus tea often just sold as Jamaica) when I moved to California, and finally made my own last summer. This hibiscus-based tea is tart, tasty, and refreshing…which is a perfect accompaniment for a witbier! [For those who aren’t familiar, it’s pronounced roughly as “huh-MY-kuh”, not “juh-MAY-kuh”.]

My base recipe is a pretty standard witbier, with a grist of 50% pilsner malt and 50% flaked wheat. I’m using WLP400 as the yeast, and a small dose of Hallertauer Mittelfrueh for the bittering hops. Because I want to highlight the hibiscus flavor and avoid any clash with coriander, I’m just using some fresh navel orange peel for steeping. I decided to add the dried hibiscus flowers at flameout, basically the same as if I were making tea. I kept hopping levels towards the lower end of the witbier style, because I expect that the flameout additions may add some bitterness.

Dried hibiscus flowers

Cerveza de Jamaica

  • 5 lbs. pilsen malt (Briess)
  • 5 lbs. flaked wheat
  • 4 oz. rice hulls
  • 0.75 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hop pellets (4.0% alpha), 60 minute boil
  • 1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
  • Peel of two medium navel oranges, 10 minute steep after flameout
  • 3 oz. dried hibiscus flowers, 10 minute steep after flameout
  • 1 pkg. Belgian Wit Ale yeast (WLP400), prepared in 1L vitality starter

Target Parameters

  • Infusion mash to hit target of 152°, 60 minutes, batch sparge.
  • 1.050 o.g., 1.011 f.g., 5.1% abv, 11 IBU, 3 SRM
  • Water built from RO to hit target of 48 ppm Ca, 85 ppm Cl, -34 ppm RA.

Procedure

  • I built my mash water with 3.5 gallons of reverse osmosis water and 6 g of CaCl. I mashed in at 164°, adding 7.5 mL of 88% lactic acid, and hit a mash temperature of 150°.
  • After a 60 minute mash, I added 1.5 gallons of RO water at 185°, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the first runnings. I then added 3.5 gallons of water at 185°, let it wait for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
  • In total, I collected 6.8 gallons of runnings, with a gravity of 1.039, for 73% efficiency. I’ve learned that adding an extra half gallon of sparge or mash water is important for these beers that have lots of flaked grains, both to keep up volume under the extra absorption and to ensure I get better efficiency.
  • I boiled for 60 minutes, adding the various ingredients per the schedule.
  • At flame-out, I added the fresh orange peel and dried hibiscus, and let them steep for 10 minutes. They stayed in while I chilled the wort, to extend the flavor extraction.
  • The wort is really awesome in appearance and flavor; it has a deep purple hue, a slightly tart flavor, and an aroma that mixes all of the additions in a tasty way. I can’t wait to try this after fermentation!
  • While mashing, I made a 1L vitality starter for the yeast. It ran on the stir plate for about 3 hours, and it showed signs of fermentation by then. After I pitched the yeast, solid signs of fermentation were visible within 18 hours.
  • I brewed this on 28 April 2018, and starting gravity was 1.048. Initial fermentation is happening at 68°; I’ll let it free-rise after 3 or 4 days.