Today I finally got around to brewing my Belgian witbier. Brewing was a piece of cake, now that I've got a few brew sessions under my belt and I'm using a wort chiller. I am thinking of maybe racking this guy onto cherries or something in the secondary ... not quite sure yet.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
1 lb flaked wheat
5 AAU (29g @ 4.9% AA) Yakima goldings @ 60 min
1 oz ground coriander @ 5 min
zest from 1 orange @ 5 min
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian witbier
Single infusion mash for 60 minutes at about 152° using about 9 quarts; sparged with ~180-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.040
Est. IBU: 22
I used tapwater again this time, so we'll see how well that works out. I haven't tried a properly conditioned Mulligan ESB yet (had one before its time and was not super impressed), so the jury's still out on tap water vs. bottled. My efficiency only ran to 68% this time around, likely because I did not get a finer grind at my LHBS as I had planned. C'est la vie.
One thing to remember for next time is that you don't get a lot of zest off an orange -- I only got about 5g. Depending on how this one turns out I may want to double or triple that amount for next time.
About 8 hours after pitching, I checked my carboy and my airlock was clogged with foam; I've never had such an active fermentation! Cleared it out, re-sanitized and re-placed; I'll check on it again before bed to see if it is still over the top. I shall probably need to invest in a blow-off tube to avoid this in future.
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