A Wit to Woo

[MPLMPL]

With a Bank Holiday looming, I'm looking to get a couple of small-scale brews on. Despite having only one brew under my belt after a 13 year hiatus (the all Citra brew I asked for advice on a few weeks ago), SWMBO is already pissing and moaning about the smell, the clutter, time spent etc. In order to placate her, I'm going to have a go at the following recipe cobbled together from a variety of sources. A Belgian Wit, as she's partial to Hoegaarden, Blue Moon etc. I'm particularly unsure about timing and quantities of coriander and curacao peel; I've looked at countless recipes (this is for a 10L brew) and the relative amounts and timings vary quite a bit. I don't want to order anything else as I want to get it on over the weekend. The only other ingredients that I have available that could possibly be applicable are: barley DME, caramel wheat (too dark?), Hallertau Mittelfruh. Feedback most welcome. Cheers.

Title: A Wit to Woo

Brew Method: Extract
Style Name: Witbier
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 10 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 9 liters

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 5.01%
IBU (tinseth): 21.66
SRM (morey): 4.72

FERMENTABLES:
1.3 kg - Dry Malt Extract - Wheat (80%)

STEEPING GRAINS:
0.125 kg - United Kingdom - Cara Malt (7.7%)
0.1 kg - German - Carapils (6.2%)
0.1 kg - United Kingdom - Oat Malt (6.2%)

HOPS:
10 g - Tettnanger for 60 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil (AA 5, IBU: 10.87)
20 g - Tettnanger for 15 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil (AA 5, IBU: 10.79)

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
7.5 g - Coriander Seeds Crushed, Time: 10 min, Type: Spice, Use: Boil
15 g - Curacao Orange Peel (Dried), Time: 10 min, Type: Spice, Use: Boil

YEAST: Brewferm Blanche Dry Belgian Wheat Yeast

 

[RobWalker]

10 mins before the end of the boil will be fine. enough to sanitize and extract flavour, not enough to ruin the aroma. make sure you crush the coriander seeds!

looks great to me :thumb: make sure you set your boil volume as accurately as possible - the hop bitterness can change quite drastically with a small batch size and small boil volume.

 

[MPLMPL]

make sure you crush the coriander seeds!

Cheers.
I was planning to - pestle and mortar at the ready! If I'm cooking with coriander seeds I tend to dry fry them briefly to release the aromas before chucking them into whatever's cooking. Does anyone do this when using them in a brew?

 

[pittsy]

i would just use wheat dme and none of those grains (not wanted ) for a 23l i use 28g of corri seed (cracked with a rolling pin in a tea towel and not crushed to dust) and same 28g of peel but add them at 5 mins left of boil , in my ag recipe i use wheat , torrified wheat , pilsner malt , flaked wheat . Now as wheat dme is around 50% wheat and 50% barley extract i would just use that , you shouldn't be getting a sweetness from the beer (cara malt etc) so no crystal malt wanted really . The tartness should come from the yeast (if you really want to impress white labs liquid yeast wlp400 is really good ) hope it turns out well for the mrs :thumb:

 

[MPLMPL]

Brewed this afternoon. Took Pittsy's advice and dropped most of the grain (kept the oats), upped the coriander a bit (12g) and added with curacao orange peel for 5 mins of boil. 12L SG 1.045, could have done with it a bit higher, topped up boil from kettle, was aiming for ~11L. Looked the part, pale and cloudy.

 

[pittsy]

great , done 1 myself yesterday ,smelling lovely in fv , orange and corri coming through nicely :thumb:

 

[MPLMPL]

Bottled today. FG 1.010 so 4.6%. Went for 2.8 volumes of CO2 which worked out as 89g sugar for 12L. Only bottled 10L as ended up with at least 1.5L of slurry in the carboy, so it will probably end up at about 3.2 volumes CO2, might be a bit frisky. Trial jar sample was a taste sensation, the coriander and orange showing nicely, but not overpowering. Tastes like a wit to me, should keep SWMBO happy, so definitely a wit to woo.

 

[MPLMPL]

It's been carbonating for a week, so it's time to sample. Tastes great, I'm very happy with it, I don't drink wits very often, but to me this is spot on for the style. Carbonation is bang on, lovely creamy head that lasts to the very last drop. I'll definitely be brewing this again.

Recipe used is slight different to original post. Pasted below. Coriander seeds were dry fried before grinding in pestle and mortar.
HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: A Wit to Woo

Brew Method: Extract
Style Name: Witbier
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 11 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 12 liters

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV (standard): 4.52%
IBU (tinseth): 27.48
SRM (morey): 3.41

FERMENTABLES:
1.4 kg - Dry Malt Extract - Wheat (93.3%)

STEEPING GRAINS:
0.1 kg - United Kingdom - Oat Malt (6.7%)

HOPS:
12 g - Tettnanger for 60 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil (AA 5, IBU: 13.51)
25 g - Tettnanger for 15 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil (AA 5, IBU: 13.97)

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
12 g - Coriander Seeds Crushed, Time: 5 min, Type: Spice, Use: Boil
15 g - Curacao Orange Peel (Dried), Time: 5 min, Type: Spice, Use: Boil


NOTES:
Brewferm Blanche Dry Belgian Wit Yeast
Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2013-06-15 20:54 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2013-05-27 21:07 UTC

 

[pittsy]

great to hear , i'm just waiting for a wit to condition too . Happy drinking :thumb: