I’m working on a concept beer - a ‘black witbier.’ The basic idea is to be a witbier but black in color (which I realize is an oxymoron), with minimal roast of course and with a heavy charge of anise to give it a strong black licorice impression in addition to coriander/orange peel. I’ve heard people say tangerines work particularly well for witbiers so my recipe in the making thus far is as follows:
40% pils
33% flaked wheat
10% midnight wheat (550 SRM)
8% flaked oats
8% Munich II
Mash @ 153F
21 IBUs hallertau @ 60min
0.5oz of Indian coriander, zest of 6 tangerines, and 1oz star anise (crushed) at T-5 minutes before end of boil.
Ferment with WLP410 Belgian Wit II at 68F
Note I am a man who LOVES black licorice so if 1oz of star anise sounds like way too much to you… I might be in the right ballpark for my tastes
I like the idea. 10% midnight wheat is way too much in my opinion. Not sure how the color works out but I would try to stay within 5%. I would shoot for 24 srm and call it good. You could always supplement with sinamar as well.
Not sure if there is any info on it but Stone did a black wit that I had on a few ocassions and enjoyed.
I love the concept. Try Unibroue Trois Pistoles for something kind of similar. Very good beer.
That is way too much tangerine and star anise though. Cut back to just 1 or 2 tangerines, and 1 teaspoon of star anise. Spicing is more about subtlety. I think a teaspoon of star anise will still be in your face enough. Could go maybe 1.5 teaspoons.
Also I fear too much midnight wheat, if that is possible. I’d cut that back but not by so much that you would only have a brown beer. Cutting back to 7% should still be black enough, especially if you offset by increasing the Munich to like 15-20% and cut back the pilsner to make up for the extra Munich.
I agree with this. You could always cut the Midnight wheat and back it up with some Sinamar. You could get the color w/o making it too roasty. I do like the idea. I would start low with the spices and go up. Maybe try making a tea and tasting first. You may then be able to scale up.
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I’ll definitely cut back on the midnight wheat and tangerines, and … consider starting the star anise lower.
I only hesitate on the anise because I find that what most people consider way too much licorice is just at the low end of the threshold for me, since I love the flavor and can’t get enough of it.
Last time I used anise it was at an attempt to make a Pennsylvania swankey… and I used about 4.5g which I guess is about 0.15 oz. Couldn’t taste it at all. I want to at least triple it… maybe 0.5oz is a good next point to try.
I also like the idea, I would drop the munich and add the lion’s share of the dark malt at sparge (and sparge a little cooler than usual <160F) like with a black IPA. I would also drop it to ~2 tangerines and maybe 3 star anise stars. You could also add brewers’ licorice, if you wanted. FWIW, I like my witbiers around 1.048 and with ~15 IBUs.
Yeah def going to drop the # of tangerines. I was only thinking of adding Munich since it’s a darker beer and may give that impression of cola that I sometimes get from Munich malt… thought it would compliment the licorice.
I understand that sensibility, but I suspect that any darker malts will detract from the “witbier” quality. If you’re making more of a witbier/porter hybrid, then so be it.
I like the concept, but I think you might be trying to shoehorn too much into one beer, and will have a hard time hitting the balance point you’re looking for.
Instead of a witbier yeast, have you considered using a neutral ale yeast and trying this as a spiced brown ale? That might give you closer to the flavors you’re looking for, even though the initial “Aha!” moment was for a black witbier.
