Lemon White Ale Recipe

There are two styles that I like to brew in the summer time. One is a Saison, which I plan to brew during the dog days.

The other style is witbier or white ale. I have brewed both styles a few times and have made some good beers. I had this idea for a variation of a typical white ale. The traditional citrus flavor that goes with a witbier is orange. I wonder if I brewed this style but using lemon as the fruit addition if it would be a hit or a miss.

The backbone of the recipe has wheat and pilsner malt but the lemon zest is the special ingredient. Check out this recipe for a Lemon White Ale.

Boil size: 7 gallons
Final batch size: 5.5 gallons
Volume for fermentation: 5 gallons

Ingredients:

6 lbs Pilsner Malt
5 lbs Wheat Malt
1  oz Willamette hop pellets 4.5 %AA boiled 60 mins.
.5 oz Willamette hop pellets 4.5 %AA boiled15 mins.
Yeast: White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale
30 g of lemon zest (approx. 6 medium lemons are needed)

Instructions:
Mash pilsner and wheat malt at 152°F for 60 minutes.  Use rice hulls if you feel like you need to prevent a stuck sparge. Collect seven gallons of wort for the boil. Boil for 60 minutes and add hops at the specified times.

Conventional wisdom and my own experience states that the fermentation temperatures should be cool so chill wort to 62° F and hold it there as the beer ferments for 2 weeks.

Once your final or terminal gravity is reached, rack the beer into a clean, sanitized carboy and add the lemon zest. Leave the beer to meld with the zest for 3 days. Check to see if the flavor is to your liking. If not, you may need to add more and/or wait a few days longer for the beer to condition. After the lemon flavor is approved, bottle or keg as usual.

Predictions:

Original Gravity: 1.051
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 3.05 °SRM
Bitterness: 17.0 IBUs
Alcohol (%volume): 5.1 %

Again, this is a different take on a style. If you haven’t brewed a witbier before, you may want to try a more traditional recipe.

I think this will be a really refreshing beer and one that if I am successful, I may put into regular rotation. The true key to this style is to keep those fermentation temperatures in the low 60s which can be hard to do in the summer when you don’t have things under control.

If you’d rather use oranges, follow Mike’s recipe for an Orange Wheat beer.