Cheap'n'Easy Light Wit (Hoegaarden-ish)

[greenxpaddy]

If you don't like it, its you not the beer!

[jaybie]

That's very clear Gary. Did you use Irish Moss or has it just dropped over time

My wit drops clear within a week or so of bottling. Seeing as I'd rather it was a bit cloudy I find this a bit frustrating, especially as my other beers which are meant to be clear are sometimes not perfect. Genuinely the wit is crystal clear. I use no moss or protafloc etc. Has anyone any idea why this might happen?

[greenxpaddy]

Larger protein chains from unmalted wheat flocculate more readily?

[jaybie]

Maybe. Do you think a short protein rest would give smaller proteins and so more cloudiness? This is a bit backwards compared to the normal pursuit of clear beer!

[bovaboy]

Hi all,

Been reading this forum for a while but never actually joined. Thought I'd give this recipe a go as my first two all grains weren't fantastic (SNPA) though still drank them of course

I have to say this beer is simply fantastic, just tried the first of the batch after conditioning in the bottles for two weeks (been away on holiday). Not quite like hoegarden, but great in it's own right. I didn't quite stick to the recipe, I did it BIAB and I had no coriander on brew day (could of sworn I had some in the cupboard when I looked the week before!) so am looking forward to trying it again with this added.

I also thought I'd give a raspberry Whit a try at the same time, so put a gallon in a Demi john as well as the rest in the fermenting bucket. I read somewhere (on another forum) that it was ok to just use frozen fruit in the primary, and thought I'd risk it for a gallon, just stuck 1/2 Kg in the bottom and added the hot wort from the boiler after the boil. This probably killed any nasties left in the fruit, though I think that I'll pasteurise it if I do a whole batch though!

The Raspberry whit has come out brilliantly! I really can't believe how well this has worked, lovely raspberry smell and just enough of flavour to tickle the taste buds. I'm not sure which I prefer at the moment (only had one of each), more testing required!

But anyway, massive thanks to all on this thread and, of course, Dave - o. The final test will of course be if my good lady wife will drink it, though I secretly hope she won't like it!

[bovaboy]

Just a quick one, the beers I drank last night all had a perfect "wit" head on them; today they are all headless while still fizzy? Any ideas what could have caused this? The beer still tastes the same with the same mouthfeel and fizz, just doesn't keep its head at all.
The ones I had yesterday had almost too much head, they've had the same time in the fridge too, put them in in the morning to drink in the evening.
Still tastes great but I would like to get this right before I put this forward to our annual brew off (which is really just an excuse for us all to get drunk on homebrew).

[bovaboy]

Aha, I didn't realise that the first glass I drunk this beer from has a little widgety thingamy in the bottom, hence the head retention! I'll have to make sure that the ones I use have the knobbly bits in to make it look good.

Going to get on with my next one tomorrow which will be all raspberry wit this time, I have 4kg of frozen raspberries to flavour it. I hope that this will be enough to give it the smell and light flavour I'm after.

I'll let you know how it goes, and I even have coriander seeds for this one!

[Razzerman]

Ayup folks,

Been away from forum for a while - just thought I'd pop back on and post with an update.

Made a lot of brews with varying yeasts / other ingredients etc. and the irony is that my last brew has been approved by my chief taste-tester (the wife) as the best-to-date.

I thought it had all gone wrong - got a stuck mash in my cool box mash tun, and had to resort to fishing out and cleaning my 'filter' muslin bag, opening up the drain on the cool box and collecting as much wort as I could through the cleaned muslin bag. What a bleeding mess - sticky stuff everywhere. Things only got worse when half way through the boil, the element decided to conk out, leaving me with a half boiled brew. Luckily, as this has happened before, I transferred the wort to a very large stock pot and plonked it on two rings on the cooker. It didn't quite get to a proper rolling boil, but I didn't have much choice. Boiled last 5-10 with three small oranges, and chucked them whole into the FV as per dave-o's original recipe. Pitched with the Brewferm Blanche dry yeast and left for three (yes, three) weeks.

Primed with regular household sugar and bottled. Came out at about 7% as I didn't dilute it at all. Gone down a treat. I even had to put 1.5 litres of it into a super massive grolsch bottle for a mate who'd sent me one of his brews in same bottle.

So, expected a total disaster, only to be rewarded with a very strong and flavoursome wit. Who'd have thought it? Just shows that ag can be a very forgiving method, and never give up on a brew.

Cheers,

Ray

[greenxpaddy]

Enjoying some toast and homemade marmalade......

Next time you make a witbier, after peeling off the zest why not whizz the oranges in a food processor and use them to make some marmalade, for toast or to make a marmalade beer....

Proportions

500g of oranges boiled for 3 hours with water and make 1L of orange liquor
1kg of sugar
50ml of fresh lemon juice

Leave orange pulp with nearly the same quantity of water soaking overnight to draw out the maximum pectin.

Bring to boil and simmer 3 hrs. Sieve.

Boil clear liquor with lemon juice and sugar to reach no more than 105 degrees C. If it doesnt initially get this hot its too wet. You need to leave it to evaporate a bit. Make sure you don't add too much water at the outset or you will have to boil too long and denature some of the pectin.

Starsan your jars and lids. I rinse with boiled water. Fill when the marmalade has cooled a bit or the glass jars will crack. (or you can warm them in the oven and then pour it hot). You can reintroduce some finely chopped zest peelings if you had any left over for the shred. Best to do this before boiling so they don't float to the top but the zestiness then disperses throughout. If you add them uncooked they will float to the top so you will need to shake them in when the marmalade is about to set firm nearer room temp.

[Swiller]

Thanks for posting the recipe dave-o
I thought I would post a pic of the
finished product. Kept to your recipe
except for the addition of half a
grapefruit (peel only).
Tastes great!

[greenxpaddy]

Looks good!

[dunks]

Hey guys, gonna have a go at brewing this as my first ever AG brew, I was just wondering if there was any tips/suggestions on the recipe/method that are different than the original first post? There's 19 pages so I don't want to miss a trick!

[dunks]

Also, would Styrian Goldings be a suitable replacement for the Bobeks?

[jmc]

Also, would Styrian Goldings be a suitable replacement for the Bobeks?

No problem.

Bobek are one of many hop varieties previously referred to as 'Styrian Goldings'.

[Swiller]

As you can see from my signature
I make Davo's Wit and tbh I stick to
his recipe with no changes.