Appearance: Colour is almost identical, colour can be the hardest thing to match with home brew.
Aroma: Very similar in aroma. The Unibroue ale has a little more of a citrus aroma and the beer I brewed has more coriander aroma.
Taste: There is a bit of a difference in taste, that said they both resemble a wit beer. The Unibroue version is quite light, sour, citrusy with just a hint of coriander. My ale is also light and sour but has more of a coriander taste and light on the citrus taste.
Overall I think the recipe from BYO is pretty good. If I used the recipe again I would reduce the coriander and greatly increase the bitter orange peel. I would also source better bitter orange peel, the ones I used looked ancient. The grain bill seems spot on though.
Excellent! Even though the differences, I'm glad it was still enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteIt is probably the proprietary yeast strain the Unibroue has as well that reflects the slight differences.
ReplyDeleteRibbit - Thanks! It did turn out pretty good.
ReplyDeleteOnebeeratatime - Definitely would have made a difference to use their yeast. I did think of reculturing the yeast in the bottle. But I was concerned about infecting the beer. I have heard reculturing can result in a pretty slow fermentation too if the yeast is old.