Famous Belgium White Beer Help

[IanM]

Hi,

I am new to brewing and got in to with as my neighbors do it.

Currently I am only doing beginners kits and I am looking to brew more pale beer / lager rather than the darker beers.

One of my favorite tipples is the Hoegaarden and I am trying to get close to a clone with the kit I have got.

I did some research in to what to get however I am in need of a little more help:

Kit List

1. Muntons 500g Wheat Spraymalt
2. BrewFerm Wheat Beer 15ltr
3. Curacao Bitter Orange peel Cut 100g
4. Coriander Seeds 100g

The peel is "dried" in a package and the seeds I think are whole in a vacuum pack.

So now to my questions:

1. To add the peel and coriander seeds it talks about adding 15 minutes from the end of a boil however as I am doing this with a kit can I just boil them in 1 - 2 L of water for 10 mins?
2. Do I need to crush the Coriander Seeds?
3. Do I need to boil them in a muslin bag or straight in the water?
4. The spray malt is a replacement for sugar. Is that for both the main stage 1 fermentation and the bottling process or just for one?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[clibit]

So now to my questions:

1. To add the peel and coriander seeds it talks about adding 15 minutes from the end of a boil however as I am doing this with a kit can I just boil them in 1 - 2 L of water for 10 mins?
2. Do I need to crush the Coriander Seeds?
3. Do I need to boil them in a muslin bag or straight in the water?
4. The spray malt is a replacement for sugar. Is that for both the main stage 1 fermentation and the bottling process or just for one?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

1. Yes but maybe add a bit of malt extract.
2. Yes
3. Either, but strain them out somehow. A sieve would work.
4. Just the main fermentation.

The key ingredient is the yeast in this kind of beer. It will be wel worth splashing out on a liquid Witbier yeast, like Wyeast 3944, or Whitelabs WLP400 or 410.

It really will make a massive difference.

 

[YeastFace]

Have you worked out how much peel and coriander seed you'll be using? You really don't need a lot.

I'd suggest 2 g/l of the peel and 0.5 g/l of the coriander seed (lightly crushed, not ground to powder).

I agree with clibit, boil some of the dme for say 15 mins and add the peel and seed 5 minutes before the end. Adding a chamomile tea bag at this time also adds a fresh element which rounds out lovely.

 

[IanM]

Thanks for the info.

Have ordered the Yeast and will give this a go soon

 

[IanM]

Just got the yeast in a form of a smack pack.

On the package it says it will do 5 Gallons but my kit is for 15 litres.

Is it ok to use the lot or should I take a third of the yeast out?

 

[Slid]

I would pitch all of it. If you want to re-use the yeast in a further brew, there is a lot of advice on "top-cropping" - that is skimming yeast off the foam from the initial ferment. Also a possibility is re-using the dregs from the bottom of the FV - this is mostly termed "yeast washing", although the best results seem to come from storing this yeast under some new beer, rather than water.

All this is all in the Yeast, Hops and Grains section.

Re-using yeast reduces the cost of specialist yeasts as it is spread over a few brews.

 

[sanch3z]

So just to pick up on this thread are you saying boil the ingredients then remove before adding the strained contents to the fv? Are these items only used to flavour the water initially and then are binned?

 

[Slid]

So just to pick up on this thread are you saying boil the ingredients then remove before adding the strained contents to the fv? Are these items only used to flavour the water initially and then are binned?

I don't think it is critical to strain them out as they will be left behind in the trub e.g. at bottling.

 

[sanch3z]

Hmm, totally confused. Do people:

A. Boil seeds and peel for 5-10mins and add the lot to the fv for the entire period

Or

B. Boil seeds and peel for 5-10mins, strain and remove only adding flavoured water to fv

 

[sanch3z]

Well that's done. All in now let's see how it goes

 

[Hazeygav]

Let us know how you get on, I'm very interested in doing a whitbier myself :)

 

[sanch3z]

Let us know how you get on, I'm very interested in doing a whitbier myself :)

TBH this is my second one, this time I want a little more fruit flavour coming in. The first was was still excellent though. You should give it a try... was super easy

 

[Hazeygav]

Nice one chap, try it with the peel and seed both in and out of the fv, that is if you have 2 fv's,

So looking forward to getting my speidel braumeister so I can give some wiesbier a go,

Keep us informed chap of how you get on, I love hoegaarden too but Perlenbacher has a nice taste too, Guess I just love my wiesbier

 

[Grizzly299]

I'm interested to see how this turns out, Wit beer is probably my all time favourite brew. Light, refreshing and full of flavour. It kicks the crap out of lager on a warm summer's day and takes nowhere near as long to make!

 

[GDog]

Is this the kit you have?

"BrewFerm Wheat Beer 15ltr Beer Kit"

I've been looking at getting it, I just need a few more 1 litre PET bottles accumulated, unless there is an easier way of storing this much volume?

I'm too used to wine !!!!