Allagash White Recipe

Pretty sure I've seen the recipe somewhere. I believe it's in the Wheat book. Harvest the yeast from a bottle. Some of the fruitiest yeast I've ever used. My starter smelled like it had oranges in it.

 

There's a recipe here:

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=18660.0

And another for comparison:

https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/allagash-white-clone-13

 

I have homebrewed many Belgian Wits with Wyeast 3944 but those beers were not the 'equivalent' of Allagash White.

I would suggest that the recommendation of @mbbransc to culture up yeast from a bottle of Allagash White is a very good suggestion if you truly want to 'hit the mark' here.

Cheers!

 

My speculation that it mix of at least 3 yeast and properly short aging or carbonating lager yeast

 

I've never had Allagash, so I can't compare this to the real thing, but I did recently brew this clone. I made some slight changes...upped the ginger to 0.4 oz, upped the coriander to 0.5 oz, added 0.5 oz of fresh orange zest, and used Wyeast 3944. Overall it turned out alright, but the ginger was a little overpowering and the orange flavors didn't come through at all.

 

Anyone have an idea what the "house secret spice" is?

 

Talked with the brewers there for an article…Allagash White is their true house yeast. Any other Allagash bottles indeed have a carbonating yeast, but not White. @mbbransc & @JackHorzempa have the right idea.
As for the secret spice…grains of paradise possibly (?). Whatever it is, don't feel like it's a major component to the profile…just a background.

 

@jburke06, I'll throw out a recipe most of which I've just put together off of Allagash's site. I've neither brewed it or ran it through BeerSmith.

OG 1.048*
FG 1.009
ABV 5.1%*

Grain bill*:
Red Wheat - 15%
Flaked White (consider using raw) - 25%
Pilsner - 45%
Flaked Oats - 7%
Carapils - 3%

Hop / misc bill*:
@60 min, 0.25 oz Perle
@15 min, 0.50 oz Tettnang
@15 min, 0.50 oz Czech Saaz
@10 min, 1 oz Coriander
@1 min, 1 oz Bitter Orange Peel

Mash:
Acid Rest 112F, 20 mins (this will give you clove, from BYO but can't locate link)
Protein Rest 122F, 20 mins (perhaps removed)
Sac Rest 152F, 60 mins

Fermentation**:
Ferment 62-65F for 3 days
Slow rise 2F/day to 75F
Cold crash at 20 days

References:
* http://www.allagash.com/beer/white/?ao_confirm
** http://www.homebrewersassociation.o...tbier-allagash-brewing-co/?platform=hootsuite

 

@InVinoVeritas, in my opinion your spice/peel amounts are too high here.

From the AHA link:

“4. Go Easy On the Spices

While a spicy profile is a hallmark of witbier, it is important to keep in mind you are brewing a beer, not making curry! Coriander is an important ingredient in the witbier style, but it needs to be a piece of the flavor pie, not the whole thing. Select quality whole-seed coriander and crush it on brewday. The citrus components of coriander are much more pleasant when freshly ground. Use about 1-2 grams per gallon of beer.

Witbiers are also traditionally made with Curacao bitter orange. While you can use sweet orange peel, we find that the citrus component becomes too dominant.

And you can always add in other spices. Why? Because it’s fun and unique! Cumin, chamomile tea and cardamom are all possibilities. Our special spice addition is a secret!”

So, Rob is suggesting a maximum amount of 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of freshly ground coriander for a 5 gallon batch.

I also think that 1 ounce of curacao orange peel is too much.

For my homebrewed Wit beers I use:

· 0.25 ounces of freshly ground coriander

· 0.5 ounces of curacao orange peel.

Cheers!

 

@JackHorzempa, point taken, good catch and thanks.

 

Agree 100% with the coriander, have gone up to 0.5 oz of crack coriander. But for the orange peel, guessing your talking about dried orange peel? Because i go much higher than 1 oz. for my wits when using fresh peel...

 

Yup. I have only seen curacao orange peel (the traditional type of orange peel used to brew Wits) in dry form.

Are you able to buy fresh curacao oranges? Are the flavors of fruit peels more 'concentrated' in dry format?

Cheers!

 

Good question Jack…maybe in an Asian produce market? I've found seville oranges before, but not bitter (curaçao), at the local grocery store...

 

Percentages don't add up.

Red Wheat - 15%
Flaked White (consider using raw) - 25%
Pilsner - 45%
Flaked Oats - 10%
Carapils - 5%

 

What!?!

You have never heard about giving 95% percent!?!

Needless to say but we BAs did not double check the arithmetic of your previous post.

Cheers!

 

Bad engineer, I feel shame.

 

I did a second post correction:

As for conversation to lbs, I don't know your system efficiency. Additionally, it keeps things scale-able in %. However, assuming a couple things, I'll give you lbs. Assume: 70% efficiency, 5 gallon finish batch, OG target of 1.048, and rounding up to nearest oz (I never care amount being a point or two high, hate being under), here are the lbs:

Red Wheat - 1 lbs 11 oz
Flaked White Wheat (consider using raw) - 2 lbs 13 oz
Pilsner - 5 lbs 1 oz
Flaked Oats - 1 lbs 2 oz
Carapils - 9 oz
Rice Hulls (new addition to consider to avoid stuck sparge) - 8 oz to 1 lbs

As for yeast, as others have mentioned I have also heard Allagash has its own proprietary yeast strain. Additionally as also stated, I have heard Allagash White is the only beer they produce with a pure strain, their house strain. As yeast is a huge flavor player for any Belgium style, I advise you harvest from their bottles and in which case you’ll have to build a starter to propagate the yeast. Otherwise if you can’t or don’t want to do it from Allagash's bottles, just use something like WLP400 or Wyeast 3944, whichever is your yeast manufacturer of preference. If you purchase yeast, doing a starter is to your preference. I find it good practice to always do a starter regardless of OG or dry vs. wet yeast. However, this is a somewhat of a hot topic and others will go the other way. Frankly regardless of starter or not, it will still make beer.

 

First time poster here, so take this with a grain of salt, but...

I've spent countless hours reading up on this and have been working to piece together all of the scraps to formulate a cohesive recipe. What's funny is that it seems very few people think to consult Allagash's own website for the info.

From their own page:

"Grains: Allagash 2-Row Malted Barley Blend, Red Wheat Malt, Raw White Wheat, Oats, Carapils

Hops: Nugget, Crystal, Czech Saaz"

There's also another thread, about five years old at this point, where someone mentioned exchanging emails with the head brewer at Allagash, who mentions using roughly 15% wheat malt and 25% raw wheat.

So my amateur-ish guess at the proportions are:
50% two-row (and not pils malt as seemingly EVERYONE believes)
25% raw wheat (I've heard of some people grinding and mashing raw wheat berries, but I'm pretty new to brewing so I'll stick with flaked for the time being)
15% wheat malt
5% flaked oats
5% Carapils

For 5 gallons, this puts you at something like:

5# 2-row
2.5# raw/flaked wheat
1.5# wheat malt
.5# flaked oats
.5# CaraPils

...which BrewersFriend estimates will put you at OG 1.054, FG 1.015, 5.08% ABV (at 75% efficiency). Allagash clocks in at 5.1% so that's pretty damn close. Rice hulls would certainly be helpful to keep the mash from getting too sticky.

As far as hopping goes, it seems you definitely don't want to break 15 IBUs. I'm really new to developing hop schedules, but when I do my brew, I'm probably going to aim for:

.2 oz Nugget (whole) @ 60
.2 oz Crystal (whole) @ 30
.2 oz Czech Saaz (whole) @ 15

...which BrewersFriend suggests will put me right about 14 IBUs. If you're rocking pellets you can drop the Crystal and Saaz down to .15 each or just drop the Nugget down to .15. Please feel free to correct me on this, this is rough calculation at best.

As for yeast, I'd pitch Wyeast 3944, personally, but again, open to correction or suggestion. Probably want to ferment around 70F ambient and leave plenty of headspace. I think 1/3 headspace is recommended for wheat beers as a rule of thumb.

Toast your coriander to get those volatile oils rocking. The grocery store across the street from me pretty regularly has bitter oranges in stock, which is nice, but honestly, there's no shame in sourcing good quality dry peel online. Not sure on amounts - haven't brewed it yet. Online sources seem to float around .5 oz each of coriander and bitter orange peel per 5 gallons.

Sorry for the long post, but it seems like a lot of people aren't doing a great job drawing together all the constituent parts that are available. Hope this is helpful!