Brew #36: Witbier

This is a straightforward Belgian Witbier, a wheat beer with coriander and orange peel. The batch was brewed 2006-09-11.

Style:
Witbier
Type:
All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
9 EBC (Golden)
Bitterness:
23 IBU
Malts:
3300g Pilsner malt
3300g Raw wheat
Mash:
60C, 35 min
70C, 35 min
55% efficiency
Hops:
35g Perle pellets 6.6%, 60 min
5g Perle pellets 6.6%, 15 min
15g Saaz pellets 3.3%, 15 min
Spices:
15g Coriander seeds, 5 min
6g Dried bitter orange peel, 5 min
Yeast:
White Labs WLP 400, 1 liter starter
Boil:
90 min
OG: 1.050 FG: 1.012 (estimated)

Lessons learned:

• I tried to do the mash without gelatinizing/preboiling the raw wheat. I have always done this in the past. It looks like it was a bad decision. The mash efficiency was extremely low at 55% (I usually get 68%), so I had to add 500g of dry wheat extract to hit an OG of 1.050. This time I had a new malt mill, a Barley Crusher, so I would really expect a higher efficiency. So, next time I will gelatinize.
• Remember to buy enough coriander. I intended to add 15g coriander seeds, but had only 6g left. I guess that's fine as this beer is intended to be a straightforward wit anyway.