After reading about the “original” witbier in Brewing with Wheat I’ve been thinking about how to go about making one of these beers.
The long and short of it is very low attenuation (like 50%), unconverted starches, sour to very-sour character, partially boiled, some spices, few hops. I’m thinking maybe turbid mashing like for a lambic and partial boiling like a Berliner Weisse?
Has anyone tried something like this? I’ve never tried to purposefully lower my attenuation, so I’m not sure how to go about that.
Mash at 131-140 with a very long rest (lets say 2-3 hours) and a short rest at 160-165F (lets say 3 minutes) and mash out at 170F and don’t boil. Pitch lactobacillus delbruekii into wort at 120 F, and let the wort cool overnight to 65-70. Then pitch wit yeast (T-58?) and allow wort to warm to 70-75F.
The idea of the mash schedule is to produce a wort with lots of glucose for the lactobacillus at 131-140 and lots of dextrins at 160-165F. The proposed mash schedule is just an initial stab in the dark.
Alternatively, follow the Slijim mash procedure in Radical Brewing, skipping the first rest.