I'm planning on trying a Hibiscus Wit recipe, and I was wondering what I should put down for the AA non hop additions. I imagine Coriander seed and Orange peel bitter will add some ibu's but I'm not sure how to account for it. I added them to the Hop lookup table with 0 as the AA value. Also I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how much rice hulls are needed? I've never had a stuck sparge, but I've also never tried a recipe with wheat before. Thoughts? I pulled the recipe from Reddit, so the following is from that post. 5lbs Belgian 2 Row 5lbs Flaked Wheat 1lb Flaked Oats Rice Hulls if needed Mash at 151 for 75min 1 oz Hallertau @ 60 4 oz Hibiscus @ 15 (I use Jamaica Hibiscus from my local mexican grocery) 1 oz Coriander Seed @ 5 (I crush this up with a mortar 7 pestle a bit first.) 1 oz Orange Peel Bitter @ 5 Zest of Oranges, Grapefruit Lemons, etd (Optional, but tasty) Wyeast #3944 Belgian Wit
Zero IBUs for the spices, as none of these ingredients have alpha acids in them. While hibiscus might add a bit of bitterness, I suspect it will be much less than the equivalent weight of any hop variety. Coriander doesn't really come across as bitter; it mostly adds a citrus character. The orange peel will likely add some bitterness. The reason for the IBU calculation is for recipe design; as you already have a recipe, it's not that big of a deal. The amount of rice hulls needed depends to some extent on one's mash process (thickness being the main factor). Personally, I'd change out the flaked wheat for malted wheat and go with 1/2 lb of rice hulls. Cheers!
Interestingly, the recipe you pulled from Reddit doesn't list any gravities or IBUs, which is kind of important to have to be able to tweak the recipe for your own mash efficiency (to hit the intended Original Gravity) and for the Alpha Acid content of your particular batch of hops (to hit the intended IBUs). If I were going to adapt that recipe (and didn't have the ability to ask the author any questions), I'd probably do something like this (assuming BrewCipher is already set up for your equipment/processes): 1) Enter the grain bill as is (and make sure the spreadsheet has your typical mash efficiency for a low/mid gravity beer already entered). 2) Enter the desired gravity in the "Target OG" cell. (1.048 is a good middle of the road OG for a Witbier.) 3) Enter the hops as is (and override the AA% for the hops you have if it's different from the default for the hop type). 4) Enter the desired IBUs in the "Target Standard Model IBUs" cell. I'd say a good rule of thumb for a Witbier might be a level that get's you to a BU/GU ratio of about 0.20 to 0.30. For example, for a 1.048 beer, choose an IBU target between about 10 and 14. Or go a little higher...it's somewhat a matter of personal preference. 5) Click the "Combo Scale" button, to scale the grain and hop amounts to the targets. 6) Don't worry about the bitterness added by the non-hop ingredients. Standard Witbier recipes (designed within the approximate parameters above or otherwise) don't include bitterness calcs for non-hop ingredients. It's just understood that an ingredient like orange peel will add a little bitterness...it's already assumed when targeting the hop derived IBUs.
Thanks to both of you for your replies. To date I've never brewed anything like this, mostly my history has been pretty standard styles, porters stouts and the occasional amber. Vikeman, your sheet has been my go to for many years now and is a tremendous tool. I'm just starting to grasp the idea of balancing bitterness to Maltiness and I've found I like the results where it's either neutral or slightly malty so that is what prompted my question. I didn't want to brew a very bitter beer by accident. Anyway all I have to go off for the OG is that the ABV should reside in the mid 5s I haven't ever used the macro functionality, but now that I've just tried it, it works great, thanks! One of the areas I always struggle with is the water additions. My method is to select the profile and then fiddle with the numbers to try to find the additions that get me closest to the profile. If there were a macro to suggest the ideal additions to match a selected profile, that would be awesome, just a feature suggestion. Thanks again for the help, and the fantastic sheet.
So, if you haven't done this already... pick an ABV target (say 5.5% for example), and then increase (or decrease) the Target OG (running the combo scale macro after each time) until you hit 5.5% predicted ABV. (Make sure you have your mash parameters and yeast strain entered beforehand.) You could also figure it out with a calculator and/or pencil and paper, but dialing it in with the scale function is faster.
