Birthday Witbier

For my great girlfriend (and sometimes brewing assistant) Alyssa I attempted to make a clone of her favorite beer: Allagash White.  To me Allagash has made the quintessential wit, orangey and peppery though not overly so with just the right amount of bitter orange, coriander, wheat and yeast characteristics.  In my attempt to copy this beer I followed a recipe in Extreme Brewing that comes from Allagash with the only changes being using only Tettnanger hops.  While I don't doubt Allagash's abilities I highly doubt the recipe as the resulting brew has almost no flavor of spice or orange.  When realizing this at bottling I decided to make a spice tea with bitter orange, sweet orange and coriander. The end result is an easily drinkable beer but still not nearly as strong in the flavor profile as Allagash. Next time I plan to use a full ounce of crushed coriander (rather than a quarter) and probably at least half an ounce of both sweet and bitter orange peel (or fresh).  The brew has gone over well enough with everyone who has tried it and inspired me to plan Drye Wit a wit style beer made with both wheat and rye.