Funky Wit

After work brew session! I'm trying to fit a couple brews in before Thanksgiving, so I'm doing one of my late evening brew sessions.

Today I'm brewing a somewhat experimental beer. The base beer is essentially a Belgian Witbier but I'm doing a 100% Brett fermentation and I'm going to incorporate either rose water or orange blossom water into the beer. I'm shooting for quite a bit of citrus character so I'll probably add some zest in secondary. Here is the recipe as I'm planning on making it, but I may change things up as this beer progresses.

5.0# Castle Chateaux Pilsner Malt

4.5# White Wheat Malt

1.0# Rolled Oats

28g Strisselspalt (60 min)

7g Coriander (10 min)

7g Orange peel (10 min) - I'm using peels from my home grown Mandarin oranges

1.0# Golden Belgian Candi Syrup (Flameout)

Tangerine zest (secondary)

Lemon zest (secondary)

Rose Water or Orange Blossom Water,  TBD

Imperial Suburban Brett

Mash at 155F, 90 min boil. The house is a little cooler this time of year, so I'm going to just let this go at room temp, ~68F.

Brewing Notes
No issues, OG came in at 17 brix (1.068).

Update 11/18/2018
This batch had a much longer lag phase than I'm used to. I was seeing some signs of fermentation 24 hours after pitching, but it definitely wasn't as vigorous as sach strains and other brett strains. It now has krausen about 3/4" thick. I doubt I'll run into any blow-off issues with this batch.

Update 11/25/2018
Just got back from our Thanksgiving getaway. This beer is chugging along, still with about 3/4 to 1 inch of krausen.

Update 12/4/2018
This is still plugging along. The krausen has mostly dropped, but there's positive pressure and a bubble about every 15-ish seconds. There's still a ton of yeast in suspension which is fairly typical as brett tends to not flocculate very well. I'll probably let this go until 12/15 before I pull a gravity sample.

Update 1/28/2019
I added blood orange zest and tangerine zest on 1/26. This yeast just kept plugging along with a CO2 burp about every 30-ish seconds until just recently. Looking forward to kegging it soon.

Update 2/10/2019
I kegged this beer yesterday. This has some fantastic citrusy aroma. I haven't done anything with rose water or orange blossom water quite yet. Once the beer is carbed, I'll do some micro dosing experimentation. I'm thinking rose water may be the better choice, considering the citrus character already present from the zest. I haven't checked the pH, but there's a little bit of acidity there. I wouldn't call it "sour", definitely more on the tart side.