First Belgian Wit

Today was an exciting day - I brewed my first ever Belgian Wit - a wheat beer that is brewed with a significant amount of unmalted wheat. I absolutely love the style, and so does my wife - no idea why I had never brewed it before. Just never got around to it I suppose - so many beers and so little time. Being unemployed has its advantages I suppose.

The grainbill that I chose was recommended by a few friends. I knew that a basic Wit was 50% malted barley and 50% unmalted wheat, but it was recommended that I included some rolled oats at 5%, so I reduced the unmalted wheat by that amount and went for it.

I had some wheat berries on hand, though I don't recall whether they were hard or soft because I've had them a while now. I put those through the mill on their own, before milling the barley. I had to open the roller gap (space between the two rollers) on the mill fairly wide to get them to go through, so I then ran them through twice more, each time narrowing the gap just a bit. Thank goodness I have an adjustable mill! Then I ran the barley through on 2 different settings, the 2nd one a bit tighter than the first.

The mash temperature was right at the bottom end - 149F / 64C, which will make a low-body and highly fermentable wort. At this lower temperature the enzymes in the malt convert the starches in the grains to more lower-order (smaller) sugars, which makes it more fermentable. But it takes longer so I mashed 90 minutes.

Here is my recipe for 45 litres.

Grain Bill

• 5kg Canadian OiO 2 Row Malted Barley
• 4.5 kg wheat berries
• 500g rolled oats

Mashed 149F / 64C, 90 minutes

Collected 58 litres of wort.

Hops

• 60g of my home grown 2008 Hallertauer (boiled 60 minutes)

Other

• 33g freshly ground coriander (10 minutes)
• 46g dried bitter orange peel (10 minutes)

Here is a video with a few highlights from the brew session.