Witbier Isseus...

[GillettBreweryCnslt]

So I brewed a witbier a few weeks ago and just racked it into the keg today. I tasted it and it doesn't taste, like it is contaminated, but it isn't great either. It was in primary fermentation for 10 days at 21C, then I racked it into secondary where it stayed for 14 days, it may have gotten a warm as 24C for a day or two. I pitched it with a fresh pack of forbidden fruit, it acted the way it should and the gravity is exactly where it's suppose to be. The strange thing is that it cleared after a week in secondary, which I thought was funny. The taste is hard to describe, it's heavier then I feel it should be and it's missing most of the yeast flavour as expected. There is also much less spice then I had calculated. Anyway, here is the recipe. Any comments?

Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.64 lb Wheat Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 44.75 %
1.76 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 29.83 %
1.50 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 25.42 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [6.90 %] (60 min) Hops 25.3 IBU
0.50 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Forbidden Fruit (Wyeast Labs #3463) Yeast-Wheat

Measured Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG

Dave

[amartin]

The spicing looks right, and I wouldn't worry too much about a warm fermentation on a Belgian beer. You can up your spicing some if you haven't bottled yet, I've heard of soaking spices in vodka for a week or two, then running it through a coffee filter. You could probably make a tea, too. I think the problem may be that you used wheat malt extract instead of unmalted wheat. Also, did you get the wheat dry extract from Noble Grape? If so, it's half barley extract, so wheat's only making up about 22% of your grist. That would explain why it cleared.

[sleepyjamie]

i've never had much success using the DME from noble grape. all the beers i made using DME came out awful tasting.

[mr x]

amartin's explanation certainly makes sense to me, because I don't see anything else wrong there.