Half-Wit Newfangled Boh

Floating Hops

According to BeerAdvocate, A Witbier is: "A Belgian Style ale that's very pale and cloudy in appearance due to it being unfiltered and the high level of wheat, and sometimes oats, that's used in the mash. Always spiced, generally with coriander, orange peel and other oddball spices or herbs in the back ground. The crispness and slight twang comes from the wheat and the lively level of carbonation."

Although my new beer is unfiltered and will have a relatively high level of wheat.  I cannot speak to the crispness or twang yet....

Regarding Bohemian style beers, (from Wikipedia) "Until the mid-1840s, most Bohemian beers were top-fermented. The taste and standards of quality often varied widely, and in 1838, consumers dumped whole barrels to show their dissatisfaction. The officials of Pilsen founded a city-owned brewery in 1839, called Bürger Brauerei (Citizens' Brewery - now Plzeňský Prazdroj), brewing beer according to the Bavarian style of brewing.  Bavarian brewers had begun experiments with the storage (German: 'Lager') of beer in cool caves using bottom-fermenting yeasts (i.e.German: 'gelagert') , which improved the beer's clarity and shelf-life."  

Hops--now boiling!

Also, The History of Beer states: "The Czech beer industry's worldwide fame dates from the Renaissance, as does the Bohemian tavern which is famous throughout Europe.  Beer is still brewed in Rakovnik today. In the early 16th century, the Czech beer industry contributed as much as 87% of total municipal income to city coffers. Czech hops were being shipped up the Elbe to the special Hamburg hops market from 1101, and the Germans still prize Bohemian Saaz hops from Zatec today. The Czechs were even exporting their beer at this time, most notably the beer they brewed in the town of Ceske Budejovice in south Bohemia. The Bavarians who were importing this beer understandably had a hard time pronouncing the name of the town, and so they referred to it as "Budweis," a place name that is still associated with great beer today - as is Pilsner, which is derived from the place name of the west Bohemian town of Plzen."

My beer will be an ale, thus, top-fermented.  I will not dump my beer.  Quality should not vary from bottle to bottle.  There should be little dissatisfaction to speak of.  It will not be stored in cool caves...

As you can see, this ale will be a creative bastardization between two dissimilar styles of ale.  It is boiling as I type this.  All of life is an experiment, and brewing is part of life...

Wheat malt extract

I am looking forward to trying this beer.  It holds several firsts for me:

• First time using Irish moss.
• First time using toasted barley
• First time brewing with wheat adjuncts.

Typical for Boh beers (or any Czech beer) are the Saaz hops which I am using for flavoring.  I hope it comes off as well as planned.