Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

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adm

Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by adm » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:01 pm

Today I got a pass from gardening and got a crafty Wit on:

Wittgenstein

Grain:
2.25Kg Lager Malt
2.25Kg Wheat Malt
0.5Kg Flaked Barley
0.125Kg Flaked Oats

Hops:
20g Golding 6.2% AA FWH
20g Golding 6.2% AA 15 min
7g Hallertau Mittelfruh 5% AA Flame Out

Others:
7g Curacao Orange Peel 15 mins
1 teaspoon crushed coriander seed 15 mins

12g Curacao Orange Peel Flame Out
1 teaspoon crushed corainder seed Flame Out

Yeast:
2L starter of Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit

I'm aiming for 1047 and 20 IBU

Here's the pics folks.....

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First of all, here's the yeast starter yesterday on the stir plate fermenting nicely

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And the grain. I was going to use 1Kg of flaked wheat in the grist, but couldn;t get any so used 500g of flaked barley instead. Not sure how that will work out, but it should be fine.

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Also, 500g of oat husks to make sure the sparge goes well with the wheat.

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pH looks to be about 5.3

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Here's the first wort hops, plus a teaspoon of gypsum

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First runnings. You can see how the rice hulls make for a fast run off.

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Some more Goldings at 15 mins. I also added some dried bitter orange peel and some crushed coriander seeds

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Flame out - add a tiny pinch of Hallertauer Mittelfruh for a slight aroma, plus some more bitter ornage peel and coriander seeds.

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Running off via pump and plate chiller - straight through cooling to 23C in 5 mins.

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Pitched and aerated

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And the result....22L at 1047....

I love Wit beers - and I'll be drinking this one quickly. 7 days in the FV, then a couple of days at 3.5 vols carbonation and it'll be on tap!
Last edited by adm on Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by edit1now » Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:22 pm

Good one :D

andysmok

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by andysmok » Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:51 am

Looks good to me.=D>
As you know Adm i've just made a wheat the other day and i was intrested in your plan to have it on tap in about 2 weeks. Is this normal practice with wheat beers and would this be OK for me to do the same with my Happygaareden?

mysterio

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by mysterio » Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:33 am

I'm drinking my wit at the rate of about 1 and a half litres a day, it was bottled about 13 days ago :D

adm

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by adm » Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:19 am

Andy,

Wit's are normally OK to drink young - a lot of the character is in the yeast anyway, the hopping is low and they are meant to be cloudy - all of which just screams "Drink Me Now!"

andysmok

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by andysmok » Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:41 am

Right O, I shall be slurping mine in about a weeks time :D

adm

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by adm » Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:02 pm

Here's progress so far:
Image

About 1020 on day 5....seems about par for the course. Very cloudy, which isn't surprising either, there's still a huge amount of yeast in suspension.

This smells and tastes great. The spicing is just right - you can't quite tell where the taste from the yeast ends and the coriander and orange begins. And you can't quite make out it is coriander and orange either. There's a lovely taste that lingers in the mouth that you can't quite work out what it is - but then you realise....it is of course the taste of Belgian Witbier. I'm tempted to get another "sample" right now.

I think I'll leave this in the FV until next weekend to finish up and settle out a bit, then keg it and start drinking as soon as it's carbonated.

adm

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by adm » Tue May 19, 2009 12:26 pm

Here's how this one's turned out so far:
Image

It tastes great! The mouthfeel is actually a little fuller than I'm used to for a Wit, but I put this down to using some Flaked Barley in the grist instead of the Flaked Wheat that my recipe called for. It's different in a good way though....really smooth and with great carbonation (30psi at 10C).

I'm off on a trip tomorrow, so I'll leave this in the keg and hopefull if the weather picks up over the weekend, I'll have a few folks round for a barbecue and we'll drink it all.

I've still got the yeast slurry in the fridge, so i might make another Wit from it this weekend.

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Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by edit1now » Tue May 19, 2009 2:31 pm

My Wit is going away rapidly - I have to keep a couple of bottles back to take to the in-laws in June. I'll do another one on Saturday if I get it together - probably with WB-06 again, unless I do another Hefeweizen.

Do you know what temperature yours was fermenting at? Just that I could have a go at controlling the temperature now.

adm

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by adm » Tue May 19, 2009 2:39 pm

Mike,

This one was fermented at 20C. I only measure the ambient temperature in the fermenting cupboard, so the actual wort temp was probably closer to 22C for the first few days. It's come out good - you can smell and taste the yeast character, but it's not overpowering. Same for the spicing - all in all it's pretty well balanced.

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Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by edit1now » Tue May 19, 2009 2:53 pm

Ta - Eric Warner's book suggests going warmer for more esters, though not too warm to avoid fusel alcohols. I felt my Hefeweizens weren't sufficiently bananary. If I do the Wit again I think I'll double the orange peel and coriander - I would like to know that they're there!

adm

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by adm » Tue May 19, 2009 3:04 pm

edit1now wrote:Ta - Eric Warner's book suggests going warmer for more esters, though not too warm to avoid fusel alcohols. I felt my Hefeweizens weren't sufficiently bananary. If I do the Wit again I think I'll double the orange peel and coriander - I would like to know that they're there!
I'd say the orange and coriander in this one are pretty good - you can taste them if you know what you are looking for, but my wife couldn't quite work out what they were until I told her......which to my mind is about right.

This has a fair bit of banana and clove in it too, it's definitely "estery" if that's a word- although a bit more wouldn't hurt....

adm

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by adm » Tue May 19, 2009 3:22 pm

edit1now wrote:Ta - Eric Warner's book suggests going warmer for more esters, though not too warm to avoid fusel alcohols. I felt my Hefeweizens weren't sufficiently bananary. If I do the Wit again I think I'll double the orange peel and coriander - I would like to know that they're there!
That's an interesting looking book.....I've just taken a punt on it for £7.

One other thought.....I'm not very impressed with the dried Curacao orange peel - I think the orange flavour might be better (more of a fresh orangey burst) if you were to use the fresh zest from a Seville orange or other bitter type orange if you can get your hands on one....

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Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by edit1now » Tue May 19, 2009 5:13 pm

Mmm - I had that thought as well. What time of the year do Seville oranges turn up?

mysterio

Re: Wittgenstein Belgian Wit - 26/04/09

Post by mysterio » Tue May 19, 2009 9:46 pm

Eric Warner's book is one of the more decent ones of the series, I recommend it too.

Here's a presentation by Warner about his wheat beers (he brews for Flying Dog in the states). http://www.slideshare.net/nealstewart/i ... conference

As you can see slightly underpitching and underaerating have more of an effect on ester production than temps

My experience with using the WLP300 at 22 -23C has produced pretty bad beer, but the Wit yeast loves it up at those temperatures! That's interesting you get banana from the wyeast ADM, i don't get any from the White Labs version, I think I might try the wyeast next time to see if i can notice a difference.

I use Seville oranges sometimes (sometimes sold as 'marmalade oranges'). I bought some a few months ago but I don't see them about any more. And tangerines are good. I used 45g last time and it could cope with more

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