Putting The White In Wit

[WitWonder]

As my handle would suggest, I am a fan of the Witbiers and currently have my first fermenting and there will be many more to come. One thing I have noticed with the sampling I have done thus far is that the colour is not quite right. It's too straw-like rather than the Hoegaarden white that I want to get. The (AG) recipe I used was around 43% pale wheat, 50% ale and the remainder equal portions of rolled oats and raw wheat. I will be putting another of these down on the cake this weekend so would like to tweak the recipe somewhat.

Is it just a case of increasing the oats (I've read up to about 10% can be used) to get the white colour or is there some other magical ingredient?

 

[hockadays]

You could use a pilsner malt instead of ale malt to make it lighter.

 

[bakkerman]

The white in the Wit is the yeast. Hoegaarden bottle with a very powdery yeast that gives it the cloudy look.

I have read that you can also create a protein haze by adding a cup of flour to the mash.. I will try this in my next attempt.

 

[deadly]

50/50 wheat and pils

 

[geoffi]

Try pils malt, and you could also try using some replacing some of the wheat with plain white flour (yes, flour). About 300g worked well for me.

 

[Doc]

I have read that you can also create a protein haze by adding a cup of flour to the mash.. I will try this in my next attempt.

I've added a tablespoon of flour to the end of the boil. This worked great, and the keg remained cloudy for at least 6 weeks.
At that point I could have inverted the keg a couple of times to get it back into solution, but it as pretty much dead anyway.

Doc

 

[AndrewQLD]

I've replaced the wheat malt with raw wheat in my Wit's and it makes a very pale, white, beer. Also adds a slight tart touch that is nice in summer.

Andrew

 

[gap]

I've replaced the wheat malt with raw wheat in my Wit's and it makes a very pale, white, beer. Also adds a slight tart touch that is nice in summer.

Andrew

Me to. I do not use any malted wheat in my wit , raw wheat and pils malt only.

Regards

Graeme

 

[RetsamHsam]

I agree.. Adding malted wheat to a Wit is not to style.. You really need to use Raw/Torrefied Wheat (up to 50%) together with Wyeast 3944 to get the colour/flavour you are after

 

[tdh]

If I read right I noticed that you are going to pitch onto the cake.

This could be too much yeast.

Use half a cup of slurry per 20-25 litre batch.

tdh

 

[reVoxAHB]

dig put me on to rolled wheat in substitute to torrified, which has worked well for my last couple of wits in that the cereal character of torrified wheat was diminished, or negligible.

i tend to hammer my wits with spices at end of boil including generous amounts of organic orange rind and curacao (and chamomile flower) which generally throws it in the way of orange amber in appearance anyway.

if i was going for a hoegaarden style wit in appearance and subtlety, i'd vote +1 for pils malt over 2-row and a tablespoon or two of organic white flour at end of boil just as others have noted.

oh, and hit stu's wit thread if you haven't already .

reVox

 

[wessmith]

Equal thirds of Galaxy malt, the palest wheat malt you can find and Kialla organic raw wheat - try for a very high protein batch. My current lot is 18% protein!! Check the 5kg bags as they have an analysis on the bag.

Wes

 

[WitWonder]

Thanks for the comments all I will give some a go. I am using the 3944 yeast and it is smelling and tasting great. Regarding the unmalted wheat, I did use some in this batch but obviously not enough. It was just from the local hippy shop - 'whole wheat'. I hope this is the right stuff.

tdh - I am doing a double batch - I didn't think there was such a thing as too much yeast?!

 

[dig]

+1 for Galaxy
+1 for rolled wheat
+1 for re-pitching with a powdery lager yeast

Yum, I love wit. Like APA, it's pretty bloody basic, but you have to do it right.

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

With such a high proportion of wheat I usually throw in about 2l (volume) of rice "gulls", to avoid the stuck sparge.

 

[Screwtop]

I've replaced the wheat malt with raw wheat in my Wit's and it makes a very pale, white, beer. Also adds a slight tart touch that is nice in summer.

Andrew

As andrew says Raw Wheat is important in a wit.

I've added a tablespoon of flour to the end of the boil. This worked great, and the keg remained cloudy for at least 6 weeks.
At that point I could have inverted the keg a couple of times to get it back into solution, but it as pretty much dead anyway.

Doc

And as Doc says, use some white flour in the last 10 min of the boil. You need to mix the flour with some water to make a watery paste and add that to the boil, never dry flour it will clump and drop out.

A little acidulated malt is good to and also 10g of dried citrus peel from the Asian Grocer and 10g of crushed coriander seed in the last 10 min of the boil.

Screwy


K97 is a reasonable dried yeast for this style

 

[Batz]

You guys need therapy

Batz

 

[wessmith]

Ignoring Batz reply, I would use Fermentis WB04 and definitely not K97 for this puppy. Batz, one day we will meet over a wit/hefe/wheat of some ilk and we can then REALLY talk about the styles (note there are 2 styles here) while sampling some appropriate examples. Just let me know when you are visiting the papal city...

Wes

 

[dig]

400 is a much better strain. Leaves a thread of clove, dry but still mouth filling, and no banana. Can be sulphury initially if you use junk like Kirin Malt.

 

[3G]

I use raw wheat from a fodder store milled finely. Fermentation finished today and the pale white colour is the best yet.