Imperial Witbier recipe

[mookow]

As requested in another thread, I am posting the recipe I recieved for an Imperial Witbier. I have had the beer in question, and it was excellent. Just a tiny bit too sweet for my taste, but still very very good. And the alcohol (11.x%ABV) is completely hidden. I will be making two batches of this, and I think for batch #2 I will add some WLP099 to dry the beer out a bit. I will also tone down the fermentables in that batch slightly as I dont want the alcohol content to get too far out of hand.

NOTE: when I was discussing this with the guy who brewed it, he told me it was 44IBUs. When he emailed me the recipe, he told me to use 19HBUs of Horizon hops. I'm emailing him back and asking which figure I should go with, but I assume it is less than 19HBUs as that puts the IBUs into the 60's.


Steve's Imperial Witbier

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 24.00
Anticipated OG: 1.116 Plato: 27.18
Anticipated SRM: 11.0
Anticipated IBU: 50.2
Brewhouse Efficiency: 55 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
41.7 10.00 lbs. Wheat Malt America 1.038 2
25.0 6.00 lbs. Maris Otter England 1.037 3
16.7 4.00 lbs. Honey 1.042 0
8.3 2.00 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 19
8.3 2.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Horizon Pellet 13.00 48.2 60 min.
0.50 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfruh Whole 4.50 2.0 15 min.

Extras
Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.50 Oz Bitter Orange Peel Spice 10 Min.(boil)
0.75 Oz Corriander Seed Spice 10 Min.(boil)
0.50 Oz Bitter Orange Peel Spice 2 Min.(boil)
0.75 Oz Corriander Seed Spice 2 Min.(boil)

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3864

Mash Schedule
-------------
Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs: 20.00
Water Qts: 23.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 5.75 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.15 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 150 Time: 90
Mash-out Rest Temp : 168 Time: 20
Sparge Temp : 170 Time: 0

Total Mash Volume Gal: 7.35 - Dough-In Infusion Only

[Otis_The_Drunk]

I would up the hops just a touch, other than that, looks kick ass.

[Triple Freak]

That recipe looks more like a Wheatwine to me...

[mookow]

Originally posted by Triple Freak
That recipe looks more like a Wheatwine to me...

With all the coriander and the orange peel, it definitely drinks like a witbier.

[Mad Scientist]

20 lbs of malt AND 4 lbs of honey....that's alot of malt....

[mookow]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
20 lbs of malt AND 4 lbs of honey....that's alot of malt....

Well, you could probably reduce the amount of malt, sparge more, then boil it all down and get much better efficiency... or after you collect enough gravity units, you could continue to sparge and collect those runnings for a normal sized wit (the only issue is that you'd be a little to dark for style).

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
20 lbs of malt AND 4 lbs of honey....that's alot of malt....

:) ....Wasn't complaining.....

[Otis_The_Drunk]

It wouldn't take too many of those to get a buzz that's for sure.

[mookow]

Originally posted by Otis_The_Drunk
It wouldn't take too many of those to get a buzz that's for sure.

No, not at all. I was glad I had four hours for my liver to process some alcohol prior to me getting into my car.

[mookow]

Originally posted by mookow
Well, you could probably reduce the amount of malt, sparge more, then boil it all down and get much better efficiency... or after you collect enough gravity units, you could continue to sparge and collect those runnings for a normal sized wit (the only issue is that you'd be a little to dark for style).

I ended up doing this. The Imperial Wit had an OG of 1.111. After one hell of a vigorous ferment, the blow-off tube has slowed down slightly (probably a sign of the yeast getting drunk rather than runnning out of fermentables, as it has been less than 24 hours). I oxygenated twice, once right after pitching, and once about 1.5 hour later. If I could, I'd toss some yeast nutrient in there right now, but the foam is still coming out and so I dont think it is practical.

The "Dark Wit", as I named the small beer resulting from this, is about 3 gallons and something of a "oh what the hell, why not?" batch. The name just seemed to fit for a brewery named Baby Seal Brewery with a slogan of "Get clubbed!".