T his amazing Belgian beer is a style that dates back hundreds of years; however, it fell into relative obscurity until it was revived by Belgian brewer Pierre Celis in the 1960s. Fortunately, this nearly extinct style is currently enjoying a renaissance.

If you were wondering, by the way, “wit” means “white.” So in keeping with our Hwy 50 branding, we think Wit Line Fever is perfect. This beer is a departure from Hwy 50’s traditional English, Irish, and Scottish beers and the American IPAs we’ve produced so far, primarily because it comes from the Belgian tradition of brewing.

The Belgian Witbiers go back to the 1400s. The farming communities and monasteries near the village of Hoegaarden are credited with developing this wonderful style. As with most beers at that time, hops were not commonly used, so balance in their traditional wheat beer was obtained by adding citrus peels and spices. This new style became incredibly popular across Europe.

However, due to the increasing popularity of pilsners during the 1800s and 1900s, the popularity of witbier began to decline, and in 1957 the last Hoegaarden brewery closed.

Fortunately, the story doesn’t end there. In 1965, Pierre Celis, resident of Hoegaarden, built a small brewery in his shed and after experimenting with various witbier recipes, released his first Belgian Wit to the public in 1966. Thank goodness for those early craft brewers. Because they were willing to take chances, we are able to enjoy so many magnificent beers that would otherwise no longer exist.

Following several mishaps and failed partnerships while brewing in Belgium, Pierre packed up and headed for America in 1989. He settled in Austin, Texas, with plans for another brewery already simmering. With help from his daughter Christine, he opened the Celis Brewing Company in 1992 and began to brew Celis White.  Celis White is still brewed at the Celis Brewery, using Pierre’s original yeast strain. While Pierre passed away in 2011, His daughter Christine is keeping the spirit of this incredible style alive.

Today the most common examples of witbiers are Coors “Blue Moon” or Budweiser “Shock Top.” But these are mass produced by large companies. Hwy 50 is a small independent craft brewery and—as with all our beers that follow traditional styles—my assistant Sierra and I set out to make our Wit as authentic as possible given the equipment we have.

Yeast

For our witbier we used a traditional Belgian Wit yeast. Belgian yeasts create very unique esters and phenols which give those unique Belgian aromas and flavors. Belgian beer makers don't just buy a new pitch of yeast for a beer like we do. Some of their yeast strains are centuries old. They've maintained and babied them and know exactly what those strains are going to do, what flavors and aromas they will contribute to the finished beer, and how they will be reused for years to come.

Wit yeast is a very specific strain, and it does give our new witbier that unique and authentic flavor we wanted and which comes through just beautifully.

This yeast is so unique to the Wit style that we keep it isolated and only use it to brew Wit. In fact when we finished fermenting and transfered our Wit from the fermenter to the brite serving tank, we took that fermenter entirely apart. We scrubbed down every last nook and cranny because I don't want that yeast getting into any other beer! It's fantastic for this style, but I certainly don't want those esters in my Imperial Stout or IPA! While that might make for an interesting beer, it just isn’t where we are going at this time.

Temperature

A lot of the character that Wit yeast brings to this beer is derived through controlling the fermentation temperatures. We start fermentation by keeping the temperature very low—lower than we would on a lot of beers—and then slowly let it rise as fermentation continues. This process helps the yeast to create those wonderful phenols and esters.

Yeast of course is a colony of living organisms. Through their movement they generate heat. As most breweries do, we use glycol chilled water in the jacket of our fermentation tanks to control temperature. In making this witbier, toward the end of fermentation we control the glycol flow to let the temperature rise—in this case to about 72 degrees. We don’t do that with other beers, but it works wonderfully with Belgian style beer. We knew how traditional Wit yeast would respond to temperature increase, and sure enough, it created those unique flavors we were expecting.

In homebrewing I used to brew a lot of Belgians. I would put my fermenter in a bucket and throw my fish tank heater in there so I could turn up the heat and get the temperatures I wanted. I wish it were that easy here!

Color

As I have already stated, most people think “wit” means “wheat.” But in Dutch—the official language of Belgium—it translates to “white.”

Just as it is light on the palate, this Wit is very light straw colored. Of course it has some cloudiness to it from the proteins. The way it’s brewed, that haze will always be there. This haze lends to that beautiful “white” color found in the Wit style.

Grains and Mouthfeel

We wanted to stay as traditional as possible, but I still have to brew in a way our equipment will handle the process. I wasn't sure I could get away with sticky unmalted wheat without plugging up the whole system, so we used unmalted rolled wheat in addition to unmalted whole wheat kernals and pilsner malt—which is lightly kilned barley malt.

We used oats as well which adds a nice light creamy mouthfeel without being over the top or cloying. Oats also give some of that white iridescence that comes with a classic witbier.

Flavors and Spices

Like traditional Wits, we used coriander and orange peel as flavorings.

When I homebrewed I would peel different citrus fruits for my witbier—grapefruit, tangerine, oranges. I would love to have used fresh peels here too, but then what do you do with 50 pounds of peeled oranges?

We used dried bitter orange peel, which is actually more traditional, and of course real coriander and a couple other spices.

The first time I homebrewed this beer I went a little heavy on the coriander and had a lot more pepper than I anticipated. From then on I throttled way back and so went very light-handed on this Wit as well. I didn’t want the flavor profile to lean toward the spices.

My approach is always to let the beer itself shine through. When I use anything other than just the beer and the hops, I want people to taste something in there but not know quite what it is. If they can tell me exactly what they are tasting, then I went too far.

My two cents: flavors should be interesting and complex without ruining or dominating the beer. I think we succeeded because the spices are subtle with just a little spiciness from the coriander which is appropriate for this style. And the tart citrus gives a refreshing lift.

I think the overall taste of Wit Line Fever is fantastic. It finished at 5.4% alcohol, so it’s very dry and light on the palate. The residual sugar is not there like in some of the bigger beers. It's very much a summer beer—and for me a winter beer as well. That smooth balance of sweet and light tartness goes down very easy no matter the season.

I hope I have expressed how much I enjoy brewing a beer I love to drink!

So, dear friends, raise a pint of witbier with me, year-round.