WITBIER | How to Brew the BEST End of Summer Beer | Grain to Glass | Brewing with Spices

[@irvingblades3756]

This was the last beer I brewed, and without a doubt my favourite beer so far. I bottle conditioned, but I'll be honest i could only give it 2 weeks. That fluffy pillowy head is like nothing I've ever had on a beer I've brewed before. A very nice bonus, I finished my last bottle last night, and will definitely be brewing this again for my next brew. The only difference I did was scrap the cardamon and replaced it with 3 chamomile tea bags. Thank you for the video and recipe.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Wow, thanks for letting me now how it turned out, that sounds really awesome. I'm very happy it turned out well for you. Chamomile is another great flavor for these beers!

[@irvingblades3756]

@@TheApartmentBrewer your welcome. Although I miss judged the amount of water I'd need and ended up with 5 litres less total water than I originally wanted. But decided before rapidly heating up some I quickly checked the gravity of what I had collected and it was exactly the same as yours, so thought rather than water it down I left it as is. I ended up with 21 litres exactly in the fermenter. You must be getting a better efficiency than me with the recirculation of the mash, I'm still on mash tun made from a cooler and boil kettle. I watched a belgian witbier vid today and the guy I watched used a small amount of lemon grass. I thought ohhhh that could be a nice addition. 🤔🤔🤔

[@MrCrawfow]

I was a professional brewer and have been out of the industry for 6 years and haven’t brewed a beer since. You have an amazing presentation style and have inspired me to brew again! Great job and I’m glad I found your channel!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you! I'm glad I could help bring you back to the hobby!

[@nh1662]

Your description sold me...am brewing this next

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Excellent! I hope you enjoy!

[@jjh8307]

Same here!

[@Texaviator]

Why the hell would anyone click thumbs down? Great video!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

🤷‍♂️ sometimes people just don't like things, or are bots. Thanks for watching!

[@pschannel6685]

They were probably drinking too much homebrew and clicked the wrong button ...

[@fernandolima328]

Nice video. Greetings from Brazil. That's one of my favorites. I wanted to use liquid yeast, but I've benn using T58 Fermentis so far.

[@benmartin7616]

Great video! I enjoy allagash white and last year made this style my Christmas beer by adding Christmas spices instead of the more traditional spices. Many enjoyed and the fact that it was more sessionable than some of the other holiday beers was a plus. Good chance I'll brew again.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That is a great idea for a Christmas beer! Bonus that you don't have to wait forever for conditioning time, sounds like it would be fantastic!

[@Biggins_81]

I have made a version of this beer and it was my favourite so far. I will give this grain bill a try. I put 3 chamomile tea bags in mine and it has a very nice floral note to it. Great video. Cheers 🍻

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Awesome! I've also heard that chamomile really works well in a witbier. I hope it turns out well and thanks for watching!

[@wicas6]

Brewed this last week! After one week I added 1kg corsican clementine puree. Beer smells so amazing. Like candied orange. Realy hoping the pure will not mess with the recipe. Fingers crossed!

[@crabmansteve6844]

Beautiful beer. Incredible head retention and lacing. I really like the color too.

[@vikramjitsingh4538]

nice vid.....beer looks delishious........that glass from Lamplight brewing is very elegant man........cheers

[@bumpy-isms]

Love the new opening.......It's so pro now. I wanted to make a wit this summer but the brew shops didn't have what I was looking for every time I tried to order my ingredients. Cheers Steve

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks Jesse! It was the product of some late nights editing and drinking haha. It's not too late to get ingredients, hope you can still make one!

[@johnbenesch4849]

Will definitely try the orange zest from a fresh orange. Love these beers and if this makes them better it's a plus. Thanks for the tip.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Trust me, makes a huge difference! Thanks for checking out the video!

[@johnbenesch4849]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Finnaly got around to brewing my WITBIER with orange zest. Came out great. Thanks for the tip.

[@JJsiN84]

This looks like my kind of beer. Love the fluffly silky head on it. Wish I could give this a try. Absolutely no experience brewing from scratch. Well done.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Give it a try, it's not too hard!

[@meandminemusic]

Thank you for all your work! Your videos are excellent and as a new brewer, you are my current go-to for advice and ideas. I was wondering- do you have any advice on brewing a DOUBLE white with BIAB? I haven't had many examples, but one of my local NM breweries (Marble Brewing) does a rich 7% witbier I absolutely love. I'd like to try and emulate it, but I can't find much of anything on bumping up wits in my research. Not sure if I should be increasing mash, spices, adding sugar, or what...

[@malkocy]

I had a beer brewed by a craft brewery with Thai basil, and it tasted amazing.. You can try that also.. Great video, wish I could taste your cardamom witbeer. Definetely I will try that..

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for watching! I do like the basil-esque flavor in the witbier but it probably works best in a saison or kolsch style beer. Cheers!

[@malkocy]

I had an IPA with basil.. Pretty decent😄 For the Belgian wit beer, do you think I could just use a Belgian Ale Yeast? Like trappist or strong ale yeast?

[@vruychev]

Awesome! Inspired by this I made the same mash build but used Omega's Belgian Ale A OYL-024 and it turned out absolutely delicious. Cheers!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Awesome!! Thanks for circling back and letting me know!

[@derekp6636]

Nice timing, picked up some sweet orange peel and coriander last time I picked up grains..... was going to do a hefeweizen but I think I'll toss a bit more fresh orange zest in as well and see what turns out.

[@jjh8307]

Great video brother, I am gonna give it a shot!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks, I think you'll love it!

[@samuelleblanc8589]

Love your videos thank you very much ! I'm working on a witbier recipe and it will be strongly inspired from yours. I'll add the orange zest at 5 min boil, but I was wondering if I should keep it in the fermenter or remove it before the transfer. Any opinion on that ? Thank you !

[@buffalojoe78]

One thing I can attest to is Belgian wit yeast is very very active. I made a beer from 50/50 wheat extract and pale extract and lalbrew Belgian wit. It went full on geyser

[@henrikjohansson6629]

Great video this! I just made a beer based on the Wit-style, but because I'm not much for style conventions and wanted to do a quad-grain beer, I elected to swap a portion of the wheat for rye instead of adding spices (17.5% of total grain bill, with 26% wheat, 8% flaked oats and the rest pilsner malt), I figured that should give it some of that spicyness withoutadding spices. I did add orange peel at 5 minutes, but both fresh sweet orange peel and a little dried bitter orange peel (aka Seville orange). Very interested to see how it turns out.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That sounds very interesting! I hope it turns out great

[@nhender]

This is a great video thank you so much

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@SergioR_]

Excelente receta. Felicitaciones. Voy a intentar hacerlo

[@JonDAlessandro]

Great video! One thing though - I don’t believe you need to worry about rice hulls or a stuck sparge when you’re BIAB. The mesh should take care of anything making it’s way into your recirc or transfer

[@michaelcooney7687]

That looks (the beer) awesome....!

[@TedeTVs]

Thanks for yet another one. I did a hybrid between american wheat and Belgian wit 4 weeks ago. Bittering with cascade to 25 IBU and voss yeast. Organic dried orange zest 25g and 15g coriander seeds, and I was abit disappointed because I thought the coriander would shine more through, guess it woulda given the last punch if I actually did pitch it with Belgian yeast. Still, just like yours, very pillowing and smooth. Can't thank you enough for what you're doing, keep those videos coming, you are most definitely my favorite BrewTuber! Take care and stay safe, skål 🍺😎

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for the kind words and for watching! I think belgian yeast plays a huge role in the flavor of these beers, but I bet it would be good with kveik too! I'm really glad youre enjoying things, skål!

[@TwoandaHalfPintsHomebrew]

I've always been kinda sleeping on Belgian Wits but this video made me want one. With regards to spice timing, I find if what you're looking for is delicacy, adding during the boil is the best. We've added in the fermenter and it comes through very strongly, perhaps too strong, especially if you get your ratios wrong. Plus it's less hassle filtering the spices out.

[@harshbansal911]

Hi. I am new to brewing. Can you tell us what’s your mash thickness. How much water to grains do you add? And how much sparse water you use ? I have been getting lower gravity and the head dissolves quickly like soda without any lacing.

[@matthiasvonweymarn3694]

Are you milling the oats and wheat flakes or you leave them whole?

[@darraghbacon3986]

Just tried my first bottle after following this recipe. I also threw in a camomile tea bag. Delicious beer. Creamy mouthfeel, zesty, floral and light with a slightly dry finish. My only disappointment is my head retention is awful which I don’t understand considering the grain bill. I did have a stuck mash but not sure how that might have affected the proteins. Maybe it just needs another week conditioning ?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Give it some time and see if that helps. Might need another few weeks to let the CO2 fully dissolve into the beer.

[@jomonjo177]

It's am amazing video.. can you kindly advise the water quantity you used..( 8 gallons I believe). In each step.. how much to use and what to expect at each Step.. Thanks in Advance.. How do you think using Mangrove Jacks M21 yeast instead. Pls Advise.

[@szallonastojas]

One of my favourite styles. Great video, as always, keep on doing this kind of content. Learned a lot from you.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I don't plan on stopping any time soon!

[@tommanning7337]

Awesome!!!!!!! I brewed a Tripel last weekend, so far so good but I forgot to take a gravity reading before I put it in the fermenter.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Nice! Hope it's good, just call it 1.080 or something haha

[@tommanning7337]

TheApartmentBrewer that’s what I was thinking 😂😂

[@elvesburygarage9774]

Haha snap! I just tapped a very similar witbier for precisely the same drinking as you suggest. Difference being I'm in S hemisphere, so spring to summer bridging beer. I'd say the basil/rosemary flavour was derived from the cardamom. My recipe is almost identical except I omitted cardamom and I get no basil/rosemary. I did use Saaz instead of Tettnang, but I've never noticed basil from bittering additions of tettnang. Good vid, enjoy the beer.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yeah I think you are correct, thankfully its not too much of a flavor as I could see that getting overwhelming. Hope you enjoy the summer coming up, I'm not ready to let go of the summer here haha. Thanks for watching!

[@stewartmanders2291]

I don't recall seeing mash water volume or sparge volumes. Also pre boil volume?

[@westcoastbestcoast7683]

Me again! Would you recommend a cold crash before kegging? Thanks!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I don't think a cold crash is beneficial for this style. It will cause yeast to drop out, and you really want yeast in suspension for this beer

[@jackferriter2533]

Nice Lamplighter glass!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks - good eye!

[@benjaminrickman5560]

Hello!! Just brewed this on Sunday, really excited to taste it. I did want to ask what psi you were carbonating the beer to? Love the channel man, keep brewing!!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Can't recall exactly, but I usually just hooked up the keg to gas and left it at about 40 PSI for about 36 hours

[@benjaminrickman5560]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks man, cheers!

[@kevinrich5312]

Thanks for the great video. I do not have cardamom pods, but have some ground up. Would you recommend the same amount ground? Never used before.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Ground spices are going to be far more intense than whole spices so I would only add maybe half a teaspoon of you want to go that route. Cardamom is strong!

[@ashtoncromwell8950]

Hey there! I’m confused on the amount of water used. I read in another comment you started with ~8.5 gallons and than added another ~2.0 gallons as sparge? All in all if I just did brew in a bag, would I just start with 10.5 gallons in the kettle and follow through to the end? Thank you! -Ashton

[@brokentreebrewingco7034]

Down goes the beard! Great video, planning a witbier for the coming winter now, thanks for this!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Its only down for now! Hope your brew goes well!

[@nstag8r03]

This is an awesome video - well, all of your videos are awesome. I am just getting into brewing, and I was wondering if you could share some info with me, as I plan on brewing this beer this weekend. Could you provide some info on kegging this beer? What pressure, temp, and how long to carbonate for?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

If you're kegging, there are going to be a lot of variables for this - your altitude, line diameters and materials, serving pressure, temperature etc. It will be different for everyone but what I would recommend starting with is about 20 psi at 40 F for a few days, then reduce to serving pressure once you are satisfied with the carbonation level. There are carbonation charts online that will help you get in the ballpark if you want to carbonate more gradually.

[@nstag8r03]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks for the reply. What is a ballpark serving pressure?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

8-12 psi

[@rosieglasgow9168]

Thanks for the great video, I know its a couple of years old but I am going to give this a go as my next brew. You mentioned it was a very carbonated beer already, so do I not use carbonation drops when bottling? Sorry very beginner brewer! Thank you!!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

No worries, if you are using carbonation drops to bottle, you should still do that the same as any other beer.

[@finnroohomebrewing]

Great looking beer. I'm keen to give it a go. Cheers 😎👍

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cheers, thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@rebeccadavitt5448]

I am making a Belgian Wit currently…day 7 of fermentation, and was wondering if you dumped your yeast or left it and transferred? I’ve read leaving the yeast is more traditional for Belgian wits, but I’ve never done that before and still debating. Thanks for the vid!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I think I left it in for this one

[@harleyadam4813]

I think my favorite Witbier is probably Allagash White. Just personal preference. I'd love to do a collab brew with you sometime. Maybe one of my favorites, a Honey Dopplebock. I made one I called Honey, I Doppled The Bock. One of my favorite beers I've ever made. Up to you. (FYI, I'm within 90 minutes from you.)

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks, I also love allagash white, its very accessible around here. I like the collab brew idea, feel free to message me with more details, I'll see if I can find some time to fit that in somewhere!

[@TheExplorder]

Hoegaarden Wit is my favorite witbeer, it's just so drinkable. Trappist or Blanche de Namur are also great!

[@garyfromadmin4388]

Was 5.5 gallons the starting amount of water or was that the amount of wort that went in the fermenter?It looks absolutely amazing! This is one of my favourite styles and I was hoping to make this for my first attempt at home brewing.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

5.5 was the overall volume into the fermenter. Thanks! Its really not too tough to make so I'd definitely recommend it as a first brew!

[@garyfromadmin4388]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Thanks, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply to so many of these comments

[@westcoastbestcoast7683]

@@TheApartmentBrewer how much water did you start off with to end up with 5.5gal in the fermenter? Thanks!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Believe it was something like 8 gallons before making in

[@pschannel6685]

I was going to ask why the video seemed so chopped up.. The last few seconds answered that question :-) Totally agree on fresh zest. When using fresh zest in the fermenter I soak it in a little vodka for 24 hours first. I find that it helps extract flavor and hopefully kills off any bugs that might be in the zest.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Sometimes it can be a bit loud in the neighborhood but nothing beats outdoor lighting. Do you find a flavor change with using your spices in the fermenter vs the boil?

[@pschannel6685]

@@TheApartmentBrewer I suspect heat helps extract flavor for some spices... However, I prefer zest/peel in the fermenter.

[@TheRealPrater]

I followed your recipe as close as I could, except I used malted red wheat. Also I made a mistake and added the orange peel and coriander at the start of boil and omitted the cardamom. It's finishing up fermentation. What do you think results will be? Also used fermentis us05

[@bombero24ws]

Hey man, love the videos, particularly the back ground information you always give at the beginning. This is going to be my next brew. Couple questions if I may. How many gallons of mash/sparge water did you use and did you crush the Cardamom pods? Thanks Mike

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Hey! Thanks for watching and deciding you want to make this recipe! I believe I used 8.5 gallons in the mash and sparged with an additional 2 gallons for a preboil of about 8 gallons total. This system has a high boil off rate with some deadspace so my target post boil was about 6 gallons, with 5.5 going into the fermenter. I just cracked open the pods, no need to totally crush them.

[@Enanram]

Looks great, might try this soon. Have you tried Einstok Icelandic White Ale? It's a Belgian wit with orange peel and coriander, so probably similar to yours. It's a great beer.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I have not heard of that beer. But it sounds great! Its really just a super classic combination of flavors, so its hard to go wrong.

[@Enanram]

@@TheApartmentBrewer it's easy enough to find here in Scotland, not sure about the states. Apparently it's founded by Americans, but located in Iceland. Fantastic beers, I would look out for them!

[@westcoastbestcoast7683]

I've just brewed this recipe and it's fermenting away! Thanks for the great video. Can you remember roughly what your schedule was for your fermenting temperatures? You mention taking it from 68-72, I was thinking bumping it up 1 degree every 2-3 days, is that what you did?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It was slow, 1/2 to 1 degree F per day, no need to be extremely precise with the rate though

[@westcoastbestcoast7683]

@@TheApartmentBrewer thanks! Happy thanksgiving!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Happy Thanksgiving!

[@njs300800]

Looks and sounds amazing! Did you lager this beer? I'm very interested in attempting a witbier in a couple months. Thanks for the upload!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Nope, I don't really think there's a need for a deliberate lagering period. It was a pretty great beer, glad you enjoyed it!

[@njs300800]

@@TheApartmentBrewer great, thanks!

[@JimmyPage968]

I’d like to add Celis White to your list of American versions. The founder of Celis Brewery (Pierre Celis) revived the wit style in the mid 60’s. He brought the style to the US.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for the info, I'll look for it in stores!

[@sk8nchill52]

I’m brewing this right meow! Took our the cardamom because other people said that was weird. Also charged the grain bill. So I guess I’m not brewing this. Uhhhhhh you influenced it though, thanks!

[@akcender]

Looks great man! Just brewed a Hefeweizen so we're not too far off here haha. Might try this out for my next brew. Cheers! Cameron

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cheers! Its definitely very similar to a hefeweizen as far as the grist. Thanks for watching and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@graemesmith6504]

Great vid to match a great beer. Tell me how do you a sample from the Allrounder to test the SG?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you! So there's two ways to do it. If you're not doing a pressurized fermentation (as was the case here) you can just pop the lid off and grab a sample. If you are fermenting under pressure, you can hook a picnic tap up to the post with the dip tube and get your sample that way.

[@krisiglehart3061]

To toast or not to toast the coriander??

[@witnesszhou1686]

Great video. I however have a random question. Is it sustainable to brew a beer with unmalted raw materials (grains) only. NO MALT BEER. ?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Not exactly. Without getting too deep into the chemistry, the sugars in unmalted grains can only be broken down by the enzymes found in malted grains. If the ratio of unmalted to malted grains gets too high, the sugars that are needed to make alcohol are not extracted at all. It's a good question though!

[@HyperHorse]

Personally I love the colour.

[@paulbilodeau8569]

This sounds really good. Love the style. How do you measure gravity during fermentation?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I will use a hydrometer during fermentation, making sure to degas the sample before confirming the measurement

[@1TheLord1]

A15 have me the same. Krausen wouldn't die. Contacted imperial and they told me it routinely happens with that one too. Did you top crop? Cheers!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I didn't top crop, but definitely could have easily done so with this one!

[@glleon80517]

Great video and tasting! How finely did you crush the coriander seeds? Spice milk or mortar and pestle? Are the cardamom pods whole?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I just cracked everything open, including the cardamom. Didn't use a mortar and pestle, just put them in a bag and beat them up with a hammer. Thanks for watching!

[@Windrider-ov9yi]

I’m making this now.Do you put the cardamoms in whole or crush them? Thanks

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I just cracked the pods open, no need to completely crush

[@matiasd5216]

You falling in love with that White Beer is an outbreak. I don't think I'll get to put mi hands in any coromon. I'll put ginger instead, but I'm soon doing something like that in my home.

[@poisonpotato1]

Would fining with gelatin get rid of spices? Not necessarily for this style but in general

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Not exactly. Spice flavor is largely based on oils and other infuseable flavors, and gelatin fining only works on charged particles like yeast. Good question though!

[@Styv93]

I am gonna brew this one tomorrow but I haven't found whole coriander seeds, just ground coriander.. Do I need to make any changes in the amount? Thanks

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I would use about 1/4 the amount if using ground

[@kdillon5710]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Wish I had read all of the comments before brewing. I also could only find ground coriander but added the same quantity. Now I fear it’s going to be too 🥵.

[@raijin5280]

did you use 1.5oz or 35g of grange peel? 35g = 1.25oz

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

1.5 oz

[@raijin5280]

@@TheApartmentBrewer awesome, looking forward to giving this a go. thanks!

[@hrafnagu9243]

Why is the brew house efficiency only 58%?

[@jarekstorm6331]

Leinenkugal is also very good.

[@IndigoScream]

thanks God I came to this vid, I just started thinking something isn't right with my beer, bc the krausen didn't go down after 3-4 days. this is the first time i was brewing the witbier as well as using K-97 yeasts. right now it smells pretty ugly, but i'm hoping the aroma and flavor will develop later

[@henrycobb9544]

How much water did you boil to start?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I believe it was about 8.5 gallons. If you're using the recipe this number will depend on your efficiency though. My efficiency in this system was rather low at about 60% but I had a high boil off rate of around 1.5 gallons/hour

[@TheGrimbarianBrewer]

Great vid,beer looked fantastic and sounded so refreshing too,will have to get this on my to do list,I'm putting a vid up next week of a belgian dubbel Beermail can pop over to my channel and take a look when its released if you want. Cheers mate 🍺🍻

[@chevysaregr8]

34/70 works also.

[@Hannes_Lind]

If you want a more pale looking beer try not to boil to heavy since you will get a bigger Maillard effect on the wort. Try a boil that is more a simmer to keep the beer looking more light.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Absolutely agree with you there!

[@Hannes_Lind]

@@TheApartmentBrewer I have switch my aproach on my 2400W system so now during boil I only use around 1900W for a less vigorus boil. Especially during 90 min boils, used to get to dark beers comparing to the targeted SRM.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I'll keep this in my back pocket. With both the heat stick I use and the stove top I have a pretty intense boil. Wouldn't be too hard to just push through hot break and then tone back the stove top side. Thanks for the input!

[@Styv93]

Unfortunately something went terribly wrong with this beer.. the beer had an egg/fart smell for the entire fermentation and 1-2 weeks after.. After 2 weeks fermentation, I took a gravity reading while I was bottling and the reading was 1.019 which was pretty high in my opinion but I decided to keep bottling.. The beer has been at 22 degrees in the last week of fermentation. I used yeast Mangrove Jack's M21 Belgian Wit.. The beer tastes awful.. it feels like drinking raw egg.. can the yeast be the culprit?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Sounds like sulfur, which can come from many different yeasts under normal fermentation conditions, I'd just give it more time and cold storage.

[@ilanmagen]

Chamomile Yes, Cardamom NOP

[@goodolarchie]

Cardamom is pretty intense, and can be savory. Chamomile works really well though, light, floral and kind of "juicyfruit gum" estery.

[@Bassguitarist1985]

Bring back the beard!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Soon...soon...

[@FunnyandDelightful]

nonsense you didn’t show properly video after add yeast didn’t shop up primary fermentation and then second fermentation for carbonation.