Hello Fall! Well, technically not until September 22nd, but when we don’t have many triple digit days here in sunny Arizona, I start to make the switch from Summer to Fall beer style brewing…
Which means two things… my Belgian Wit Beer is the last Belgian I’ll brew this summer… and my next beer?
Pumpkin Ale!
Yes… pumpkin season is back! and I’ll be going through a similar process as with the Belgian wit, which is what today’s newsletter is about…
Perfecting my Belgian Wit Beer…
Perfecting a beer is mostly never ending… and hopefully by sharing my notes as they were written helps you learn from my mistakes more than anything else…
I took a slightly different approach this time and here’s the few changes that I made
The recipe for this Belgian Witbier is now:
7 lbs Belgian Pilsner malt
3 lbs Unmalted Wheat (Soft White Wheat Berries)
.5 lbs Steel Cut Oatmeal
1 lb Rice Hulls
1 oz of Czech Saaz (60 min)
zest of 2 Oranges (5 min)
0.5 oz Crushed Indian Coriander (5 min)
0.25 oz Chamomile (5 min)
WLP 400 Belgian Wit Ale Yeast
RO Water
.5 tsp Calcium Sulfate (added to wheat mash)
.5 tsp Calcium Chloride (added to main mash)
You can see the original recipe at: https://brewbeeranddrinkit.com/how-to-brew-a-belgian-witbier/
… but basically the changes I made were simple… I got rid of the Munich malt, which I felt was just not needed for this style…
I instead went for all Belgian Pilsner malt, although the thought of using a less modified pilsner malt crossed my mind…
Other than that, the mash process I used was also different (made it a bit easier), but kept in mind wheat and oat gelatinazation…
Here’s the video:
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… and below, are the notes exactly as I wrote them on brew day since I pointed out improvements I will keep in mind for this and other recipes…
… but be sure to read my commentary below as well…
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Brewing notes
I started this brew session by heating up water to 135 °F in my main kettle… meanwhile I boiled the steel cut oatmeal in 5 cups of water for 10 minutes… after that, I turned the heat down and let it simmer for 45 minutes…
Back outside (while the oatmeal simmered) I mashed in 3 lbs of the Belgian pilsner with the wheat and let it rest for 10 minutes at 126 °F… then I brought the mash up to 158 °F for another 15 minutes and boiled for 15 more minutes…
Next time, I will mash in first and then cook the oatmeal for better timing…
The consistency of the wheat and Belgian pilsner malt was very similar to that of the steel cut oatmeal. For reference, the water to grist ratio was about the same… it started out with a bit more water and then it got thick with the boil, just like the oatmeal…
After boiling, I turned the heat down and added water to bring the mash temperature back to 151 °F… I also added the oatmeal and stirred to get rid of any clumps that may have formed…
It took me about 10 minutes of stirring the mash to get to the mash temperature I wanted… I used the left over strike water which was at 135 °F… I will probably use a bit of cool water too next time… The idea is to mimic adding 2/3 of the decoction mash into a 1/3 of the main mash at a protein rest temperature… I overshot by about 6 °F higher than I wanted to…
Once I got down to 151 °F, I added the rest of the Belgian pilsner malt (4 lbs), stirred, and let the enzymes go to town on the oatmeal, wheat and anything left over from the initial Belgian pils malt… I did let the mash sit for 60 minutes considering the amount of enzymes was greatly reduced by now…
Since the wheat, oatmeal and even the Belgian pils were boiled, that gelitinizes the starch and makes it easier to convert, so that should make up for the reduced amount of enzymes… at least I hope so, since I did want to brew with just 2-row pils and not bring in 6-row malt…
This beer is supposed to be somewhat hazy… and some brewers add flour to trick the appearance of the beer… instead I’m going to recirculate less than usual and hope some of the wheat flour gives me the starch haze I’m looking for – if there is any starch left over from it that is…
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My Comments
What I’m attempting to do with this recipe is
a) have a process that is easy to duplicate.
b) have a beer that is a little on the thick side, but not too much to prepare it for phase 2 of perfecting this recipe…
This recipe is more of a ‘modern’ version of a Belgian Witbier… Ultimately, I want to brew an old fashioned version that will include putting this beer through a lactic fermentation…
… but before I do that, I’m taking care of the other details… (getting good body, and finding a better brewing process)
There are two more things I want to try before I move to phase 2… try a less modified pilsner malt and do a cereal mash with both the oats and wheat instead of the decoction mash…
So there you have it…
Stay tuned for my Pumpkin ale recipe… and since many have been asking about it… I like last year’s recipe (and so did my friends)…
This week I’ll be brewing it the same way, although a couple minor changes to the recipe (just the hops):
9 lbs American 2-Row Barley
1.25 lbs Munich (20 L)
.5 lbs American Wheat
.25 lbs Crystal (40 L)
2 Sweet Pie Pumpkins (roughly 24 oz of pulp)
1 oz Saaz (US) 5.5% AA (60 min)
1 tsp Cinnamon (5 min)
1 tsp Nutmeg (5 min)
1 tsp Ground Allspice (5 min)
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (5 min)
WLP001 California Ale Yeast (1 L starter)
RO Water
105 ppm Ca
132 ppm Cl
76 ppm SO4
I will brew it by cooking the pumpkin and adding that to the mash…
Cheers!
