Hello!
I brewed my first ever batch last month(Oatmeal Stout) and it came out amazing. It’s probably one of the best beers I’ve had. I decided to try a Witbier yesterday with the warmer weather around the corner. I ended up getting the ingredients/recipe from a different brew shop than the first batch and the instructions were a little difficult to decipher. It does appear to be the normal way now that I look at recipes online, but their timing counted down from 60. The first batch counted up from 0.
The ingredients:
1/2lb of White Wheat grains & 1/2lb of Pale grains
2lbs of Pilsen DME
3.3lbs of Wheat LME
.5oz Coriander
.5oz Bitter Orange
1oz Czech Saaz
1oz German Hallertau
It was supposed to go:
DME & German Hallertau @ 60 min
LME & .5oz Czech Saaz @ 15 min
.5oz Czech Saaz, Coriander & Bitter Orange @ 5 min.
I did the opposite…
Added spices and saaz @ ~5-10 min in
Added LME @ 45 min(15 minutes in)
Realized the mistake, took the spices out @ 30min. Added DME & German Hallertau at ~20 min.
Added 10 min to boil time for DME to have some time to do it’s thing.
Then put spices back in with 5 min left to boil…(so they were in for a total of about 25 min)
The original gravity is spot on (1.042). The color is very dark. The yeast is doing it’s thing and fermentation seems to be fine.
So, I obviously made some alcohol…but what should I expect in terms of taste? Finishing hops went in first instead of last, spices had a long time in the boil(they we at the bottom of the wort and were discarded, should I have scooped them out?). Certainly a beginner’s screw up!!
The recipe also calls for 1 week in primary and 2 weeks in secondary. I don’t have a secondary currently. Is it time for me to pick up a carboy? Or can I stay in primary for ~2 weeks after final gravity is stable?
I really appreciate your input on this. It’s going to be a long few weeks!
Could be over spiced…and it will stay dark did you taste your gravity sample? It may turn out to be something you really like. You can just leave it in the primary instead of a secondary vessel…
I appreciate the input. I didn’t taste the gravity sample as I took a reading from the fermenter.
I guess I’m feeling more curious about this than upset after a day of reflection haha. It’ll still be an interesting month of waiting.
I’ll be browsing some of the recipes here and whatnot to see if I find some better instructions going forward. As for the darkness, are there lighter LME’s? The one I used was caramel in color and certainly gave it the darker appearance. Or would I then have to do an all grain brew to obtain lighter colors?
Thanks again for the replies! I definitely appreciate it.
Best way to brew a beer light in color is use the DME for the 60 minute boil time and the LME for 15 to 5 minutes. I’ve brewed NB’s Witbier in the past. Color was pale yellow with a hint of gold. Very good beer.
Not sure I’ve ever seen a recipe count up. It would require to much thinking. You set your timer to 60 and just add your additions as the clock runs down 20 at 20 , 10 at 10 etc.
I’ll definitely have to give it another shot in the near future. That way I can also see how much of a difference my changes made.
As for the timing that certainly makes sense. I’ll have to look at my first batch again but I’m pretty sure it did count up. It was a recipe from a different local shop. Either way, I don’t think I’ll make the same mistake again lol…at least I hope not.
I wouldn’t bother with a secondary for this recipe. It’s not “big” and not needed IMO. I also wouldn’t waste a lot of time conditioning this either. I like my wheat fresh.
Thanks for the suggestion, so once fermentation is done you typically bottle?
In terms of freshness, how would the conditioning stage cause is it to be less fresh?
Thanks again! I appreciate everyone chiming in. Airlock is still busy, hoping I can break out the hydrometer this weekend to see how things are progressing.
did you taste your gravity sample? It may turn out to be something you really like. You can just leave it in the primary instead of a secondary vessel…