# Witbier substitutes for bitter orange peel



## beercus (22/6/14)

I'm onto my second AG Brew and first in my new 30L urn. I would like to do a Belgian wit, hoegardenish. Recipe below (adapted from bullshead witbier, thanks!)

So I do not want to buy orange peel, with the citrus available to me I thought I may be able to substitute. 

I have oranges, mandarins, limes, lemons and grapefruit, all home grown...

What and how much would you suggest?
Should I use wet or dry weights? I can peel and dry.
does the recipe look ok? 

I'm struggling to get my head around volume calculations in beersmith, but I was going to try 24L of strike water for [email protected] and 8L of mash out batch sparge water in second [email protected]

Also I'm no chilling so I expect a few more IBU's

Thanks 
Beercus


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## rehabs_for_quitters (22/6/14)

Just zest an orange and chuck that instead as its pretty much the same thing, I have tasted lime and lemon in wheat's and they both work well also


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## seamad (22/6/14)

I've used mandarin peel and worked well. Less is more, overdoing it buggers the beer, under doing it and the beer is still OK. I used wet peel, probably stick to the same weight, I add some to the cube as well as the boil. I've read somewhere that limes/lemons/grapefriut aren't that good, haven't tried myself though.


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## TimT (22/6/14)

If you underdo it you can always keep adding until you feel the flavour is right. I think Randy Mosher suggests in _Radical Brewing_ that, if you can't get Seville Orange (the citrus often preferred by brewers) mandarin peel works well.

I think any citrus would work well. Basically, it depends on how you want your final beer to taste - I find lime deliciously tangy but in some stronger beers I think the distinctive lime quality would be lost. So it's really up to you.


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## Phoney (24/6/14)

Use the force search Luke.

2x sweet orange peel + 1x grapefruit is Randy Moshers bitter orange substitute.


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## Weizguy (24/6/14)

_I have peeled a Valencia or two with a spud peeler and then into a hop bag for the boil._


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## Stuwort (24/7/14)

When I was brewing with extracts, I made my best wit using dried tangerine peel bought from an Asian grocer for $1.80 a packet. It does have an effect on the colour though.


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## Blind Dog (24/7/14)

[SIZE=10.5pt]The wit brewed by 512 was supposedly refined after a visit by Pierre Celis. Per their website and _Brewing with Wheat_, they use grapefruit peel and coriander. Personally I like the zest of 2 x orange and 1 x grapefruit as per Randy Mosher as referenced above by Phoney[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Try to get the Indian coriander (shaped more like mini rugby balls) from an Asian grocer rather than the normal stuff if you can as it definitely improved my attempts[/SIZE]


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## beercus (25/7/14)

I have zest end 2 oranges and 1 grapefruit, comes out to 48g....

Doing this tonight, mashing now....

Most recipes suggest 10-15g citrus,

Am I way off?

25L batch

Thanks

Beercus


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## seamad (25/7/14)

There will be a diff with dried vs wet peel, but I'd still 1/2 what you have


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## beercus (25/7/14)

I have gone with 25g of mixed sweet orange and grapefruit peel in at 5 min.

Halfway through boil now, the oats have defiantly gelatinised during mash, it has a snotty consistency!

Thanks

Beercus


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## seamad (26/7/14)

Let us know how it turns out...never tried grapefruit and my tree is covered with them at the moment.
cheers
sean


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## Weizguy (28/7/14)

I recall that Potters Brewery have had success with dried mandarin peel in their Wit.

As for grapefruit, I may give that a run, as my grapefruit tree is small but heavy with fruit too


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## beercus (28/7/14)

My Wit is in fermentation now with WLP400. I will let you know how it goes but i have read that this yeast will take a while to finish up. Looks like the fermenter will be in use for 3-4 weeks

beercus


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## fletcher (17/9/14)

beercus said:


> My Wit is in fermentation now with WLP400. I will let you know how it goes but i have read that this yeast will take a while to finish up. Looks like the fermenter will be in use for 3-4 weeks
> 
> beercus


any updates to this one mate?


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## beercus (17/9/14)

Fletch,

It's been in the bottle for three days. Tasted great out of the fermenter. Pretty happy with its hoegardeness...

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/82373-help-with-witbier/

Started a new thread here...

Beercus


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