Dreaming Up a Wit For Summer

I'm currently musing up a recipe for a strongish Belgian Wit for the summer, based loosely on the Wit show from the Jamil Show (that Doc actually did).

1.5 lbs of flaked oats
1.0 lbs of white wheat malt
0.3 lbs of aromatic malt
Enough pale 2 row to get to 1.070

Mashed at 148-150

First Wort Hopped with Centennial

No-Chill - with orange zest, coriander, and chamomile in the bucket

Fermented with Fermentis T-58, I had a Wit at Niagara Tradition last year made with this yeast and it had some nice aromatics - for cheap dry yeast prices!

Hippoportamus

After brewing Jamil's brown porter I'm inspired to brew something bigger for the winter. I plan to multiply my base malt by 1.4 and my other grains by 1.1 to get close to a 1.070 starting gravity. Then I will substitute 1 pound of base malt for a pound of wheat malt to aide in head "creamyness". I will also use the recommended 350L chocolate, rather than an adjusted amount at 450L. Hops will be altered to only a bittering addition, but scaled appropriately in IBU's for the gravity. Finally, this beer will be finished on american oak cubes, becuase I haven't oaked before and I want to.

Hop Harvest Autumn Ale - Recipe

My goal with this beer is to brew a malty Fall beer that I can bitter/flavor with my first homegrown hop harvest. I'm going to use a malt bill inspired by a Vienna Lager, a Scotch Ale inspired 158 degree mash, US-05 dry ale yeast, and my entire ~2ish ounce hop harvest. I want something with significant body and a lot of flavor balanced between malt and hops.

For malt I will be using (6 gallon batch):
6lbs - Harrington 2 row
2lbs - Belgian Dark Munich
1lbs - Rye Malt
1lbs - Thomas Faucett Amber Malt

For hops(adjusted for no-chill method):
0.4oz Willamette - 80min
0.5oz Cascade - 20min
0.5oz Columbus - 20min

Using the No-Chill adjustments 80min hops are actually boiled for 60 min, and 20min hops are added to the container where the wort is allowed to chill and are not boiled. I'm expecting to get 23+ IBU's from this hopping schedule, though my hops are home grown so there's no telling what percent alpha acid they are.

This is going to be my first No-Chill beer, so I'm interested to taste the bitterness contributed by the hops used during the slow chill. For those not familiar with the technique, "No-Chill" refers to a method of brewing whereby the wort is moved to a second container while still near boiling temperature, and then left to cool. This has been described at great length on a few homebrewing forums. For this session I plan to just leave my keggle out in the garage with the lid on until it's ready to siphon to my carboy and pitch.