After two rapid fire back-to-back brewing days I, with some help, had successfully brewed both the OBK West Coast IPA and the OBK Witbier. Recipes for these and others can be found here or by clicking the links on their names.

Both brew days went really well and we even took a little bit of liberty by adding a few extra blood orange peels to the Witbier boil. When all was said and done the IPA had an OG of 1.066 and the Witbier finished the boil at 1.049. The wort was transferred to their respective fermentation vessels, yeast was pitched and they sat side-by-side for just over 3 weeks.

Once fermentation was complete it was time to bottle. For the IPA we targeted 2.4 volumes of CO2 and for the Witbier it was a higher target of 3.0 volumes of CO2. Final gravity readings were taken and the IPA finished with an FG of 1.009 resulting in an ABV of 7.48%. For the Witbier’s part it finished at 1.014 for an ABV of 4.59%.

Bottling went as expected but we did try to mix things up a little bit by priming half of the Witbier with table sugar and half with brown sugar. Fast forward about 3 more weeks and it was time to drink and share with friends.

Both beers turned out really well! The Witbier was very refreshing with a thick head and a nice, strong, but not overpowering, orange citrus taste that was grounded by the coriander spices.

For its part the IPA received many accolades as a smooth, juicy beer that even won over the IPA haters in the room. Just a quick note on that: if you are one of those “IPA’s must punch you in the mouth with hops” types of people this may not be to your liking. While it does register 60 IBUs, at least according to the recipe, it certainly doesn’t taste like it.

Of the four brews under my belt I definitely think these two turned out the best. I really hope this trend continues because if it does there are some awesome beers in my future!

P.S. – we called the IPA “On the Fritz” and the Witbier “Wits About You”