Belgians, blonde or wit

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Tahoose

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G'day all been enjoying some Belgian beers lately, and am thinking of making a blonde or a wit or maybe both.

What do you like for yeast strains? As far as I know there doesn't seem to be a good dry yeasts for this style (not after a Saison yeast)

For malts I have ale, Munich, pils, wheat and a couple of spec malts. Will most probably get whatever spec malt I need when I get the yeast.

For hops I have a bit of saaz and plenty of herkules and EKG.

Do you have any favourite recipes that you wouldn't mind sharing?

Thanks
 
I made a saison for one of the beers for my wedding last year, and was (surprisingly) a hit amongst most of the guests. The keg was empty by the end of the night..

50% pils
47% wheat
3% xtal

1.049
18IBUs saaz @ FWH
Wy3726

3726 makes this beer, although have made a few decent saisons with the 3711.
 
WY Forbidden fruit is lovely in a stronger pale Belgian (think Hoegaarden grand cru).

Not made a straight up wit although I have some wy wit yeast in the fridge waiting for me to have a crack. Since the yeast is so important, I wouldn't use anything but a wit yeast in a wit.
My Pale Belgians are almost always high gravity and the yeasts I use are to suit - 1388 or 1762. I wouldn't hesitate to use these for any pale belgian type though.

I've got decent recipes for some of the strong pale types I mention - what gravity range are you after? Sounds like you're chasing table beer more than tripel.

Have also used wy ardennes with some success too.
 
Yeah I will definitely be investing in some quality yeast. Thinking something with an end state of about 5.5%.

My system is big enough however to make something big and some thing small, no chill both and ferment one after the other.

By the time I get around to the big beer it will be cool enough to bottle and store for the winter.
 
For my larger belgians I use a base of belgian pils (dingemans in my case). With strong golden, it's pretty much pils only, with a tripel, I'll add in some vienna and with a grand cru (not a separate style as such - my homage to hoegaarden GC) a good amount (say 25% each of total base) of vienna and munich. More malt focused beers might also get a small hit of toasty specs like biscuit and aromatic, darks might get special b and/or caramunich.
Sugar (for pales I use dex, for dubbels and quads/darks, I'll use commercial d2 syrup) I add in in stages once main fermentation has slowed or stopped. This avoids hot alcohol characters which you should be less likely to get with a table beer anyway.
I step mash and often decoct.
Yeast starts at low end temps but is allowed to rise a degree or so a day until it is low- mid 20s.
3 week cold condition minimum.
Yeast is active, big starter.
Hops are always low aa noble or noble type, styrians favoured for any late/flavour hops. Hallertauer mittelfruh + styrians or saaz + styrians are 2 favourite combos.

These are steps that have made me quality belgian brews, comparable with commercial examples but as said - most of mine are bigger (8-12%) and a lot of these are tricks to make high grav beers attenuate well and stave off hot alcohol.
Hope that helps somewhat.
 
This is one of my best witbiers. It's pretty similar to the one from Brewing Classic Styles from memory. I just did a protein rest at 52 for 5 minutes and then raised it to 66' for 60 minutes. Alcohol was a bit high for the style, but who's complaining B) The wyeast 3944 wit yeast tends to take a while to finish off, but it's well worth it.

I no-chill, so I add the spice and orange at whirlpool, then let sit for 10-15 minutes before cubing.


Total Grain (kg): 5.800
Total Hops (g): 45.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.055 (°P): 13.6
Final Gravity (FG): 1.009 (°P): 2.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.98 %
Colour (SRM): 3.8 (EBC): 7.5
Bitterness (IBU): 15.8 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 72
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
3.000 kg Pilsner (51.72%)
2.200 kg Flaked Wheat (37.93%)
0.450 kg Flaked Oats (7.76%)
0.100 kg Acidulated Malt (1.72%)
0.050 kg Melanoidin (0.86%)

Hop Bill
----------------
45.0 g Hersbrucker Pellet (2.8% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil) (2 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
1.0 g Whirlfloc Tablet @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
15.0 g Coriander Seed @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
45.0 g Orange Peel @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

Fermented at 18°C with Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier
 
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