New England Series: Wachusett Belgian Style White

If you grew up in Massachusetts or have been here during the winter months, you probably heard or saw commercials for Wa-Wa-Wachusett Ski Area. What you may not have known (because I sure didn't, though I am new to Massachusetts craft beer) is that there is a Wachusett Brewery in Westminster, MA pumping out delicious craft beer. When I saw the bottle displaying the name of the ski resort over the words "Belgian Style White," I immediately grabbed one. Not only was I able to drink another New England brewed ale, but a white that I can use to improve my own witbier (HB#5).

Wachusett White is a light yellow with a slight haze that gives it almost a hay-like color. In the beginning there is a sizable head that disappeared rather quickly, but a stream of bubbles rushing to the top of the glass retained a thin layer. Aromas rich with orange and cloves are dominant while hints of citrus and some pepper-like spice appear in the background. The blend of aromas really created a well balanced smell that foreshadows what is to come almost perfectly.

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The flavors are lead by a surge of cloves and coriander with hints of citrus and a very subtle maltiness. The clove flavor holds on strong through the end, while a more prominent breadiness and a very, VERY subtle bitterness (from what I am guessing is the hops) makes an appearance in the finish. A moderate amount of effervescence keeps the mouth tingling.

I think the Wachusett White falls somewhere in between the Allagash White, which seemed to be heavier on the clove and spice profile, and the UFO White, which showcased more of the fruit and citrus aspects. It is also the example that reminds me most of the Belgian witbier (HB#5) that I brewed.

New England Series: UFO White

The second Belgian witbier I encountered was the UFO White by Harpoon Brewery out of Boston, MA (they now have a second brewery in Vermont as well). Harpoon is one of the first micro breweries I was introduced to in my underage days, and I still go back to it every time I come home to the east coast. Their UFO (UnFiltered Offerings) series is a line of ales that are unfiltered and brewed with wheat which gives them more of a haze. Besides Boston Beer Company, which I believe has exceeded the label of "micro brewery," I would say Harpoon is arguably one of the most prominent and respected micro breweries in not only Massachusetts, but all of New England.

The UFO White is quite a bit different from the Allagash White that was highlighted in the previous New England Series post. The pour produced a light yellow ale with an orange tint that had a bit of haze, but not enough to give it that foggy white appearance that is usually found in the Belgian witbier style. The head was prevalent during the poor, but quickly dissipated and left little signs that it was ever there. The aromas were dominated by sweet oranges with a slight hint of spiciness.

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Though the scent lead me to believe that I would be drinking something along the lines of carbonated orange juice, I was pleasantly surprised with the balance of flavors that my palate was fortunate enough to experience. Up front there was the sweet orange that I was expecting with some hints of coriander and some pepper-like spice. There was a very strong bready flavor that lasts into the finish that blends well with a lingering orange sweetness. The body is quite light, though bulked up a bit with the breadiness, and the carbonation adds a pleasant sharpness to give your mouth some excitement.

I would not refer to the UFO White as the most complex Belgian witbier out there, which is not a bad thing at all, but it definitely holds it own amongst the other micro beer options. It is surely a thirst quenching ale that can be sessioned on a hot day. This would be the perfect beer to take fishing or to the beach.

New England Series: Allagash White

Ever since my Belgian Witbier (HB#5) turned out to be very drinkable and dare I say...good, I have been trying to drink more whites to not only see how my take stacks up against commercial examples, but also to see how I can improve the recipe for the next time it is brewed. Luckily, it has proven very easy to find a bunch of witbiers here in Massachusetts and what is even greater is that there are plenty brewed in New England.

The first one I picked up was a four pack of the Allagash White. Allagash is based out of Portland, Maine, and is a very renowned brewery from New England. There version of the classic Belgian witbier has taken home numerous medals throughout the past years and is a great representation of what a white should be. That being said, it does have some noticeable differences from my homebrew, but we will get to that in a bit...

In the glass, the Allagash white is a very pale yellow with the signature white haze of a witbier (from the wheat). A fairly thick and creamy head dissipated quickly, but there was no shortage of bubbles to keep a thin layer alive. The aromas are rich with cloves, and some notes of citrus and orange make it through as well. The first sip was dominated by cloves and coriander, which were quickly complimented by some orange and lemon citrus and breadiness from the malt. The finish is engulfed by a lingering spiciness of cloves and coriander with a slight hint of bananas. The ale is light-bodied, as it should be, but is livened up a bit by a high level of effervescence that gives the mouth feel a slight sharpness.

The small blue star marks Portland, ME

In comparison to my take on the witbier, the Allagash White has a more prominent clove spiciness, which I am definitely looking to bring to my ale. The clove aroma and flavor are largely due in part to the yeast, so I may need to make a starter or pitch more slap packs. Other than that, they are fairly similar and share the same effervescence (bubbly-ness) that brings some excitement to the light-bodied mouth feel.

All in all, Allagash created a great example of a Belgian witbier that should not be passed by if it graces your local packy's shelves.

UPDATE: Belgian Witbier bottle conditioning

I finally got around to bottling the Belgian Witbier, which had been sitting neglected in a corner of my room for five and half weeks. Because I am not one to rack to a secondary fermenter, unless necessary for processes like dry-hopping, I was a little worried that this batch may have picked up some unfavorable flavors from sitting on the yeast cake for so long. Generally, from what I have read, it is fine to ferment in the same vessel for up to four weeks, but after four weeks you risk adding some funk to your beer.

Like I said, I got a little worried that the witbier was going to taste and/or smell like farts, so I did some snooping around a few different forums. Sure enough there was plenty of people saying never let a beer sit in primary longer than two weeks, while others swear their best beers sat for six weeks (for whatever reasons). I chose to believe the latter... 

When I opened the lid of the bucket for the first time since January 11, the smell was way better than expected. To be honest, I had kind of forgot about this beer, but after smelling and tasting it, I feel like this could be one of my best ones yet. It definitely had a prominent grapefruit smell from adding the zest in at flame-out. And the flavor was sweet with oranges with earthy and floral undertones from the chamomile and coriander. The color was the best part. It was a very pale yellow with a lot of haze, which made it appear almost white. Usually brewers are doing everything they can to make as clear of a beer as possible (one of the reasons people vouch for racking to secondary), but witbiers are supposed to be cloudy and appear white, which is why the are often times referred to as "white ales.". But I digress...

Come bottling day I slaved away cleaning bottles in my bathroom and was ready to actually start the bottling process. I boiled two cups of water and added 4.7 oz of priming sugar (dextrose) for two minutes. The sugar water cooled for a bit on the stove while I did some cleaning and sanitizing, and then I put the water into the bottling bucket. Right after I got the siphon all ready, I looked into the bottling bucket and thought to myself, "Hm...Looks like there is some water on the bottom from the sanitizer." Naturally, I dumped it out, and immediately after realized what I had done...

Luckily cane sugar, which is sold at grocery stores, can be used as a substitute for the dextrose (aka corn sugar) from homebrew stores. I ended up getting highly refined baker's cane sugar because it supposedly adds the least amount of flavors. Depending on the beer and what flavors you are going for, honeys, brown sugar, and dry malt extract are just a few things that can be used as priming sugars. The brown sugar is intriguing...

Despite the sugar fiasco, things seem to have gone well. I am curious to see if I can notice the difference in priming sugars, but who knows. The gravity read 1.003, which is lower than expected. This will hopefully turn out as delicious as I wanted it to be.

Homebrew #5: Belgian Witbier

Even though I just got through brewing a saison around two weeks ago, I style have a jonesing for Belgian beers that can only be satisfied by more brewing. I thought about doing another saison, but I decided to wait until the saison fermenting now is down so I can taste it, make improvements, and brew the exact same thing again. This seems like the only logical way to actually improving my brewing. Anyways, saison was out, so I decided to take on the Belgian witbier.

I had just had Funkwerks' Belgian White about a week ago and loved it. It drank similar to a ginger beer with lots of citrus and spiciness. I knew I really wanted to capture the strong citurs flavors that were prominent in Funkwerks Belgian White, and most other Belgian witbiers, but I decided to leave out the ginger. After reading too many recipes all over the internet and consulting some of my recipe books, I formulated my own witbier recipe on BeerSmith that I think will really come out strong.

Here it is...

Zach stirring while I add the grains
during mash in.

Brew Day: 1/11/2012

Grains:

5.5 lbs - Pilsner (2 Row) Belgium

5 lbs    - Flaked Wheat

.25 lbs - Munich Malt

Mash Schedule:

Mash in:    3.2 gal at 166*F. Hold at 152*F for 60 minutes

Sparge 1:   2.1 gal at 168*F. Hold at 150*F for 25 minutes

Sparge 2:   2.1 gal at 170*F. Hold at 155*F for 20 minutes

Sparge 3:   2.6 gal at 166*F. Hold at 154*F for 20 minutes.

**My mash schedule was not supposed to look like this at all. Belgian Witbier recipes usually require you to gradually increase the temperature of the mash-in from around 122*F to 154*F, but as far as I know I cannot do that with a plastic cooler, so I planned to mash in at 154*F with 3.3 gal and do two sparges with about 2.3 gallons. However, after I saw how much wort the mash-in yielded, I knew my plans were going to change drastically. (The mash-in yielded 1.5 gallons. Sparge 1 yielded 1.5 gallons. Sparge 2 yielded 2 gallons, and Sparge 3 yielded enough to bring the preboil volume to 7.5 gallons and with some to spare) The sparge temperatures and times listed under the mash schedule were not planned. They are the result of reaction to the mash-in yielding so little wort.**

Pre-Boil Volume: 7.5 gallons

The ingredients for the boil less the hops.

Boil:

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

1 oz       German Hallertauer Hops       90 minutes

12 oz     Seville Orange Marmalade       5 minutes

.75 oz    Coriander Seed, crushed         5 minutes

1 g         100% Chamomile                  5 Minutes

4g          Fresh Grapefruit zest              0 minutes

Cool down with wort chiller and snow to 168*F

**Our hose was was completely frozen since it was snowing, so while I boiled some water to dump on the hose to thaw it out, I put the kettle in a mound of snow in order to start cooling as much as I could. If it wasn't for Mother Nature I would have been in quite the bind. The hose was thawed with one kettle of water dumped on it.**

Post Boil Volume: 6 gallons

**The opposite of the boil off situation with the saison happened with this brew. I over compensated for the boil off and ended up with 1 gal more of wort than intended. A large part of this is due to the type of boil I utilized. Instead of having a roaring boil, I kept the pot just hot enough to be at a boil, though not rapid. Beacause the boil wasn't as intense as HB#4, I think less water was boiled off. Luckily my fermenter can handle 6 gallons**

Original Gravity: 1.048 (target was 1.050)

**I am assuming the gravity is off by the small amount because I have more water than anticipated. The slightly lower OG should not be much of a problem.""

Pitch 2 packages of Wyeast 3944 Belgiant Wit yeast

Even though the mash schedule was completely off and I had to pretty much make up what I was doing along the way, my numbers still came out around the targets, so I can say things went pretty well. The beer tasted extremely good out of the tester. Citrus and orange flavors are on the forefront with some spice from the coriander and earthiness from the chamomile, while the hops add a bit of bitterness to dry it out just a tad. The only downside I can think of is the color. It looked on the light brown side of yellow, which is a bit off putting to be honest. Hopefully some of the sediment will settle and allow the color to be less muddy looking.

This was a really fun beer to brew despite taking more or less an entire day. This is my first recipe that I more or less created so I am interested in seeing how it comes out...

*UPDATE* I noticed the airlock on the fermenter bubbling rapidly at the 12hr mark. Fermenation seems to be progressing nicely.