By Tuan Bui
1700 Brewing Company, Newport News
Belgian Wit is a perfect Spring beer! Not your typical Belgian style beer but one that should not be ignored. A very refreshing wheat ale that has bright citrus notes and a unique spice that simply just works. As the weather begins to warm and the days get longer, a light & bright wheat is a perfect transition from the dark heavy beers from the winter. It’s the kind of beer that just feels right on a sunny patio that pairs perfectly with fresh foods.
Our Who ya Wit Belgian Wit beer is just that, and we’d like to share our recipe and get ya ready for spring.
Batch Size = 5 gallons
OG: 1.051 / FG: 1.013 / ABV: 5%
- 5 lbs Pale Malt
- 4.5 lbs White Wheat Malt
- 8.0 oz Un-malted Wheat
- 8.0 oz Flaked Wheat
- 2.0 oz Acidulated Malt
The medley of these malts simply gives us the sugar we need to keep this beer light and crushable. The wheats all give some body, soft white head and the haziness that is known with this style. We’ve also added some acid malt to lower the PH down a touch to help the soft mouthfeel as well as brighten up the citrus notes that we add later to the boil.
Hops and additions:
Bittering Hop: 1oz Saaz @60min
Flavor additions: @10min
1oz Bitter Orange Peel
1oz Sweet Orange Peel
.5 oz Crushed Coriander Seeds
.5 oz Crushed Paradise Seeds
These additions are the magic behind the flavor to this widely known style that some larger commercial breweries have made famous. The combination of two orange peels gives an extra layer of complexity to the familiar orange flavor. Coriander and paradise seeds are the spices that make the citrus notes pop and leave a finish on your palate that is oddly refreshing.
Yeast: Our go to yeast for this brew is Lallemand’s Wit dry yeast, but there are others on the market that will work as well, and in a pinch, some hazy IPA yeast strains have been used without much change, but definitely noticeable flavor profile changes that we didn’t want to risk for our consumers.
This style can be frustrating when trying to perfect simply because the level of orange and spice differs from palate to palate but to me, that’s the beauty of brewing yourself, it doesn’t have to taste exactly like the “big guys” it can be all yours!
Now Go Brew Yourself!!
