©2008, Randy Mosher for All About Beer magazine
What’s black and white and beer all over? It could only be a dark witbier. It’s a lip-smacking sundae of a drink: soft and creamy, overlain by a gentle cocoa roastiness, topped off with the fruity complexity of a Belgian yeast strain. It is profound and fascinating, but at around 6.5 percent alcohol, it won’t knock you over, important if you’re interested in a second one. If you’re not yet familiar with this style, you’re missing out.
Unibroue’s excellent Chambly Noire is the standard bearer, but these beers are everywhere in Quebec right now, and are just starting to break into our consciousness here in the States. Such beers do have historical precedent. New Belgium brews a black Belgian ale called 1554, the earliest reference to such a beer they could find in the history books. A text by Lacambre, 1851, lists a number of dark Belgian wheat ales, including Diest, Gulde Bier and Peetermann. Most were colored by a fairly highly colored “ambrée” base malt, and a very long boil, often with chalk added, which changes the pH of the wort and allows a lot of color to develop. All of those beers died out by the middle of the twentieth century.
Another historical thread is the influence of English and Scottish beers on Belgium in the late nineteenth century. Import duties at that time were extremely low, and because of their huge scale British brewers could bring their luxurious beers in cheaper than the Belgians could brew them themselves. As a consequence, great gobs of Pale, Scotch and Porter were consumed in Belgium. After WWI, the Belgians started brewing similar styles on their own. A “poorter” still survives there : Sterkens, from Moortgat, but as it declares itself to be a Reinheitsgebot recipe, it seems to owe nothing to the earlier wheat-based recipes.
So we’re left without a living link, which just means we’re free to pick and choose from history and reinvent it however we see fit. I’ll be using the best of modern materials and approaches, skipping some of the incomprehensible complexity of the old Belgian brewing procedures. Originally, all the Belgian wheat beer styles called for the use of unmalted wheat, and sometimes other grains such as oats, spelt, buckwheat and occaisonally even broad beans. Raw wheat contributes a marvelously rich and creamy texture to beer, but it requires the use of a complicated adjunct mashing procedure, in which the raw grains are mixed with a little malt and raised through a number of upward mash steps before being boiled and then returned to the rest of the mash, where it raises the whole mess to saccharification.
For most brewers this is a little much. Excellent results can be obtained by using malted wheat, but in larger proportions (as much as 70% in a proper witbier). Since we’re making this thing up, we’ll stick to a more sensible proportion of 40 percent. Instant oats add a layer of smooth creaminess to the recipe—they seem to work well in small amounts without a complex adjunct procedure. A healthy dose of melanoidin (aromatic, dark Munich) malt will give us a little cookie character, and we’ll be relying on the very smooth and soft flavor of German Röstmalz (Carafa) for the rest of the color and a soft, toasty edge. Don’t forget the rice hulls, as the huskless wheat malt needs a little help with lautering.
Hops are here strictly for balance, and in this application almost any variety you have should work, although I like the chocolatey quality of Northern Brewer in dark beers. I have included a dash of coriander, as well as some licorice root and a very small amount of star anise. Other seasonings such as black pepper, cardamom, and orange or tangerine peel might work in small amounts. Belgian beers employ spices to enhance the aromas of the malt, yeast, without calling undue attention to themselves.
You should by no means feel compelled to brew this recipe as-is. Witbier admits quite a lot of stretching and pulling in various directions while still retaining its soul. Hop ‘em if you got ’em; this could handle up to about 40 IBU before getting lopsided. This recipe could be knocked back to about three-quarters of this gravity for a nice dark summer quaffer. Or, you could go the other way and bump it up another percent or two, make the spices a little more prominent, and dub it a Noël Noire, for a gloriously dark Christmas.
Night & Day Blanche de Noire (5 Gallons/19 liters)
OG: 1065/16°P; Alcohol: 6.2–6.7%/vol; Bitterness: 20 IBUs; Color: Mahogany, with a pale tan head
Yeast: Belgian wheat strain such as Wyeast 3942 or White Labs WL400, or your favorite Belgian yeast
All-grain recipe (calculated at 75% efficiency):
3 lb/1.4 kg Pale ale malt
3 lb/1.4 kg Melanoidin/dark Munich/aromatic (as long as it is at least 50° EBC/25°Lovibond)
1 lb/454 g Instant oats
3 oz/85 g Carafa II (1000° EBC/500 °Lovibond)
1 lb/500g Rice hulls (for help in lautering)
Extract + mini-mash grain recipe
3 lb/1.4 kg Pale dry unhopped amber extract (or 3.5 lbs syrup)
3 lb/1.4 kg Dry unhopped wheat extract (or 3.5 lbs syrup)
1 lb/454 g Pilsener malt
2 lb/900 g Melanoidin/dark Munich/aromatic (as long as it is at least 50° EBC/25°Lovibond) 10095/50clr
0.5 lb/226 g Instant oats
4 oz/113 g Carafa II (1000° EBC/500 °Lovibond)
Mash all grains for an hour at 150°F (55°C), then drain, rinse with hot water and add to kettle. Proceed as with all-grain recipe.
Hops (calculated for pellets; use 20% more for whole hops)
0.6 oz/17 gm 60 min Northern Brewer (7% AA)
0.5 oz/14 gm 5 min Freshly ground coriander*
0.5 oz/14 gm 5 min Powdered licorice root (optional, but available at Indian markets as jethimadh)
0.1 oz/3 gm 5 min Star anise
Mash should be simple infusion mash at 152°F/67°C for an hour; then raise to 170°F/77°C for mash out, then begin sparge. Ferment at 65–70°F/18–21°C.
*Source your coriander carefully. Much of it has a sharp, cilantro-like vegetal aroma. Indian and Chinese varieties usually brew well.