Belgian Wit

As promised, I will relay to you my first foray into brewing – this time, from the beginning.  I hope nobody is disappointed, since I managed to do this correctly without drenching myself or the nearby walls in beer.

For my first solo brew, I chose a Belgian wit kit (I’m not so advanced yet as to make up my own recipes).  When brewing with friends, we usually do hoppy-as-hell pale ales, so for a nice change of pace, I wanted to do a spiced wheat beer (the coriander and bitter orange peel sounded so exotic). 

Brewing is pretty straightforward, though what a miracle in the end!  Start by heating about two and a half gallons of water in a stainless steel pot on the stove (this is, of course, after thoroughly sterilizing all of your equipment).  Once the water is at 155 degrees, dump your grains (wheat, pale malt, and oats for a Belgian wit) into a grain bag and steep them in the water.  When steeping, make sure to tie the bag off and to evenly distribute the grains so the water can soak in evenly.  The grains should soak for 20-45 minutes – enough time to get the flavor out.  Watch that the temperature doesn’t fall below 150 degrees and, if it does, turn up the temperature to bring it back to 155.  Don’t exceed 155.

After soaking, fish the grain bag out of the water, cut it open, and set the spent grains aside in a bowl (I’ll post a recipe for muffins and granola using them next).   Now, bring the wort (that’s the liquid you just made) to a gentle, rolling boil.  Add your liquid malt extract and stir continuously so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of your pot.  Next, slowly sprinkle your bittering hops into the wort – don’t let the pot boil over or you’ll have a miserable time chipping it off the stove.    Your recipe should tell you how long to boil the hops – mine said to do it for 40 minutes, maintaining that gentle boil. 

Then, after 40 minutes, I added the dry malt extract and my coriander and bitter orange peel.  That all boiled for 5 minutes, then I added flavoring hops and boiled for another 10 minutes after that. 

After the brewing is complete, in order to transfer your beer into the fermentation container, you need to cool it to 70 degrees.  Kill the power on the stove, fill your sink up with icy water, and lower your pot into it.  When the wort is around 75-80 degrees, siphon it into a clean bucket and slowly sprinkle in your yeast.  Siphon the beer from the bucket into a fermentation container (the carboy).  Agitate (read: put your hand over the mouth of the container and shake) the beer to  add oxygen.  Add enough water to bring it level with the neck of the carboy.  Cap the fermenter, fill up your airlock and twist it into the lid.  Voila!  You should see the airlock bubbling within a day.   It’s kinda fun to watch.

Brewing was easier than I’d expected it to be, plus I had chosen an intermediate recipe.  I’m going to keep gaining proficiency in the art of brewing with the goal of showing other people how to do it – especially women.  I hear a lot of women say that they don’t like beer, but I think the beers they don’t like might be of the macrobrew, flavorless variety.  It’s my belief that everyone has a beer that appeals to them – some just haven’t found it yet. 

Stay tuned for my spent grains muffins/granola recipe!

Brew on,

Jen