Last Updated on April 18, 2024 by Doug Hall
Belgian White Ales, also known as Belgian Witbier is a classic, thirst-quenching beer many enjoy in the summer months. US commercial examples include Shock Top and Blue Moon.
Witbier is part of the broader wheat beer family of northern Europe that has roots going back over 1500 years. Witbiers originated around central Belgium and has had a resurgence in popularity in the last 25 years. They are a refreshing, malt-forward beer commonly spiced with coriander and orange peel to give it a unique spicy and fruity flavor.
Most witbiers are made with a combination of malted barley, wheat, and oats, giving It the familiar hazy appearance and soft, creamy mouthfeel.
We at More-Beer have made Shock Top knock-off beer recipes that have blown us away. They were much fresher and better tasting when compared to the major brands.
A Belgian White Ale Using Tangerine Versus Orange!
Jasper’s Home Brewing Supply, one of our top online homebrew supply stores, offers a Belgian White Ale extract beer recipe kit that switches out tangerine for the orange.
Subtlety would not be one of the top adjectives I think of when it comes to Jasper’s. Just the website domain is indicative of the spirited nature of the crew over there; Boomchugalug.com
So, it didn’t surprise us that they would come up with a bit more juicy alternative using tangerine instead of orange. They call the recipe; “Sunbeam Tangerine Sumer White Ale Extract Beer Recipe Kit”.
With yeast (Safale US-05) and priming sugar, the recipe cost was $44.77. Add $7.99 flat rate shipping and we spent a total of $52.76. That breaks down to $1.10 per bottle. Jasper’s prices are a little higher than some others, but still, less than $7 per 6-pack for a quality beer is a darn good deal.
Jasper’s shipped the recipe the next day. I did have some interaction via email with their support. They were fast, friendly, and very helpful.
Belgian White Ale Extract Beer Recipe Ingredients
This was for a 5-gallon recipe. The kit came with the following ingredients:
Fermentables
- 1 lb wheat-dried malt extract
- 5.1 lbs wheat liquid malt extract
Specialty Grains
- 10 oz flaked oats
- 6 oz Carahell Malt (crushed)
Hops
- 1 oz Hallertauer
Yeast
- Safale US-05
Other Brewing Supplies and Flavors
- ½ oz Coriander (ground)
- 2 oz Natural Tangerine Flavor Extract
- 1 muslin bag (to steep the grains)
- 5 oz priming sugar
- Bottle cap labels
Cooking the Bavarian White Ale Beer Recipe
Jasper’s provides easy-to-follow directions. On brew day we placed the ground coriander in a small glass jar with 1 cup of cheap vodka, screwed the lid on tight, and put the jar aside.
The total brew time of this recipe was just 40 minutes. A little different from the 60-minute boil we have become used to with extract recipes.
We started with 2.5 gallons of water in our brew pot, got the strike water temperature up to 150 degrees, and dipped our specialty grains (in the muslin bag provided) to steep for 20 minutes. During this time, make sure the water does not go above 170 degrees.
Once we have removed and discarded the grains, bring the mixture to a boil. Remove from the burner and the 1 lb of wheat-dried malt extract. Once that has become completely dissolved, back on the burner and return to a boil. Start the 40-minute timer and add the 1oz of Hallertauer hops.
With 5 minutes remaining in the boil, pause the timer, remove the kettle from the burner, and add the 5.1 lbs of liquid malt extract. Get it completely stirred in and then return the wort (fancy name for unfermented beer) to the burner and bring it back to a boil. Re-start the timer and I also added a whirfloc tablet.
Once the 40 minutes total boil time is up, time to cool it down. I put the brew pot in an ice bath in my kitchen sink. While stirring to facilitate overall cooling, I also added 1 gallon of filtered water that had been chilled in my refrigerator.
I also add 1 gallon of cold filtered water to my primary fermenter. Once the wort has cooled to about 90 degrees, I pour it into the fermenter. Add more cold water as needed to get the volume to just over 5 gallons.
Aerate the wort and then pitch the yeast. Seal up the fermenter, add the airlock, and put the fermenter in a dark spot with a consistent temperature of around 68 degrees.
Fermentation and Bottling
Fermentation was active and done in 4 days. We let the beer condition for another 10 days. The day before bottling, we added the complete 2 oz bottle of the natural tangerine flavor.
On bottling say, we went through our typical procedures of cleaning and sanitizing 48 bottles as well as the caps, capper, bottling bucket, racking cane, and hoses.
We dissolved the 5 oz bag of priming sugar (dextrose) in 2 cups of water and boiled it for 5 minutes. Set that aside to cool a bit.
Once everything had been cleaned and sanitized, I added the spice potion to the bottling bucket and the cooled solution of priming sugar. I rack the beer over the two and gently stir a few times to ensure it is all mixed.
One of the cool things about recipes from Jasper’s is that they include labels for the bottle caps. That beats the heck out trying to decode what the heck I wrote on the caps with a Sharpie pen.
We let the bottles condition for 2 weeks before tasting. I heard the always gratifying ‘woosh’ when the cap was popped off.
Jasper’s Belgian White Ale Tasting Notes
Wow! The tangerine comes through dominant in both the nose and the taste. A light golden color (almost orange), the haziness from the steeped oats makes it appear like a genuine Bavarian Witbier.
There is no hops flavor that comes through but the Hallerteau hops helped keep this beer from becoming too sweet. There is just a hint of the spiciness from the coriander spice mix.
The mouthfeel is smooth and it has a slightly sweet finish. It is a well-balanced beer that is easy to drink!
Final Thoughts
This will be an awesome summertime brew to enjoy. After 6 weeks of bottle conditioning, we sequestered the bottles away in an extra refrigerator to keep them in a cool dark place until summer.
It is not a sessionable beer but will be a thirst-quenching, juicy alternative to all the bitter, juicy IPA’s everyone else will be peddling in the summer.
Here are our final numbers:
- Size: 5 Gallons – 48, 12 oz bottles
- ABV: 5.4%
- Color: 6 SRM
- Bitterness: IBU 15
- Fermenting time: 14 days
We bought a second recipe from Jasper’s Home Brew Supply, a Dunkel Lager. That will take a few months before it is ready to taste and review. We will update our blog once that review is live.
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