Release: Belgian Blauw Wit

As part of our San Diego Homebrew Summer program, a dozen local breweries are producing recipes from local homebrewers at their breweries during the sunny season. The next to debut will be Belgian Blauw Wit, a Belgian-style wheat ale conceived by longtime homebrewing buddies and members of local homebrew club, Mash Heads, Fred Brophy and Paul Duddles. This colorful beer, the base for which won a gold medal at the National Homebrew Competition (the most prestigious annual recreational brewing contest in the country) has been brought to life on a larger scale by Kilowatt Brewing. It is scheduled to hit the taps at the company’s trio of locations in Kearny Mesa, Ocean Beach and Oceanside tomorrow, September 23. Before you go try it for yourself, take a moment to scroll down and learn all there is to know about this collaborative creation.

Belgian Blauw Wit | Belgian-style Witbier with Butterfly Pea Flower

Commentary by Kilowatt Brewing Head Brewer Brian Crecely

This was my first time brewing a Belgian wit professionally and the recipe called for a good amount of wheat. I had a little bit of guesswork to do as I wasn’t exactly sure what my yield was going to be since I haven’t really used any raw wheat in our brewhouse. I tweaked the amount of base malt to be more in line with what our typical brewhouse yields and we were able to hit our gravity. It was a little difficult to get the spacing right and the addition of the butterfly pea flower but I think we got it pretty close. The butterfly pea flower has a very distinct flavor that can be overpowering and we didn’t want that to ruin the profile of the spices. It was a fun project to brew something we haven’t done before and great to have Fred and Paul in the brewery for the brew day.

Q&A with homebrewer Fred Brophy

What led you to submit this particular recipe for consideration?

The original idea was to submit a beer that was light enough to show the purple of the butterfly pea flower. When Paul and I won a medal at NHC, we retooled this recipe to be closer to that recipe. Paul is a spice man, so the addition of coriander, orange and grains of paradise was the real difference from the original beer.

What was the brew day like?

Brian took care of business and has a lot of experience not sticking a mash, which is a danger with all of the unmalted wheat in this recipe. It was nice to know the beer won’t be filtered and, therefore, will remain hazy.

What were some fun moments from your time at Kilowatt?

We had a good time talking with Brian and learning more about Kilowatt. He gave us a tour of the Forbidden Cove tiki speakeasy next door, which is just amazing between the lighting and the sound. You need to see it to understand!

What are you most excited about with this collaboration?

We’ve had people asking us to try our award-winning beer, so here it comes, but big and purple like Grimace. We can’t wait to tap it!