Beyond BrewPrints: Designing a 10 L BeerDroid Witbier in Brewfather

The recipe I ended up with

1. The starting point: BrewArt Team's “Hoegaarden Wheat Clone”

While deciding what to brew after my BrewPrint stash runs out, I found a Hoegaarden Wheat Clone posted by BrewArt Team in the BrewArtist Community. The 10 L ingredient list is 1× E5 / 4× X2 / 1× Y5 / 2 g crushed coriander seed / 3.5 g dried Curaçao orange peel, using the regular Ale program. BrewArt Team's method steeps the spices in 1 L of hot water for 30 minutes, combines that infusion with 9 L of water in the BeerDroid, cools to 22°C (72°F), then adds the yeast, Elements, and Enhancers. Their ballpark target is about 5.5% ABV, 12 IBU, and 11 EBC (~5.6 SRM). [1]

That was the bridge I was looking for: still brewing in the BeerDroid, but moving from one complete BrewPrint to choosing and combining ingredients myself.

2. If I am buying spices anyway, why not design my own recipe?

I still want to brew the BrewArt clone. But it already requires coriander and orange peel in addition to the E/X/Y ingredients. Once I am buying ingredients outside a complete kit, stopping at the clone felt like a missed opportunity.

So I set a new goal: design a 10 L (2.64 gal) Witbier for the BeerDroid and watch the numbers myself. I used Brewfather, whose Recipe Designer recalculates predicted OG, FG, ABV, IBU, color, and related recipe values as ingredients and settings change. [5]

3. Starting with a 10 L extract recipe

I set the recipe to Extract, 10 L (2.64 gal), and style 24A Witbier. The BJCP 2021 Beer Style Guidelines likewise classify Witbier as 24A. [8] The first fermentable bill was 900 g (1.98 lb) Bavarian Wheat DME plus 450 g (0.99 lb) Pilsen Light DME.

The first result was only OG 1.036 and 3.5% ABV—obviously lower than I was aiming for. Before adding more extract, I checked why the calculation was low.

4. First red flag: the Wheat DME record showed 1.036 potential

The Bavarian Wheat DME entry I had been using showed a 1.036 potential.

I searched Brewfather's built-in ingredients again and checked the Briess Bavarian Wheat and Pilsen Light records. For this model, I aligned both to the Brewfather Briess entries showing 1.045 potential / 97% yield. Briess's current product information lists Bavarian Wheat DME at 3 SRM and Pilsen Light DME at 2 SRM. [6]

Without changing the ingredient weights, the estimated OG moved from 1.036 to 1.046. The lesson here is not “Brewfather was wrong.” It is that the ingredient record feeding the calculation matters, and I needed to verify the values in the record I had selected.

5. Gravity fixed—then the color jumped to 10.2 EBC

After fixing the potential, OG was where I wanted it, but the recipe color was 10.2 EBC (~5.2 SRM). The Wheat DME color entry was 15.8 EBC, so I checked the product data again.

Briess currently lists Bavarian Wheat DME at 3 SRM (~5.9 EBC) and Pilsen Light DME at 2 SRM (~3.9 EBC). [6] Using those color values brought the overall recipe estimate to 5.7 EBC (~2.9 SRM).

6. Saaz: 10 g for 60 minutes to target 12 IBU

Next came hops. Brewfather returned several Saaz entries, so I used Czech Saaz at 4.5% alpha acid as a design placeholder.

That matches the 12 IBU ballpark of the BrewArt Team clone. [1] The actual alpha acid percentage will depend on the bag I buy, so I will replace the placeholder with the lot-specific AA% before brew day and recalculate.

7. Fixing the spice amounts and choosing the yeast

When I first added coriander and bitter orange peel under Misc, the in-progress entries were 22.92 g and 40.1 g—far beyond what I intended. Those were not Brewfather recommendations; they were simply intermediate input values that still needed to be edited.

I reset the spices to match the BrewArt starting point—2 g coriander and 3.5 g bitter orange peel—then chose Lallemand LalBrew Wit. Lallemand lists LalBrew Wit's fermentation range at 17–25°C (63–77°F) with 75–82% attenuation. [7] My current design setting is 19°C (66°F) for 7 days.

8. Final design: BeerDroid 10 L Witbier v1

The BrewArt Team Hoegaarden clone started the project, but this is not a direct replacement of BrewArt ingredients with generic equivalents. I rebuilt it around DME, Saaz, and LalBrew Wit while watching Brewfather's predicted gravity, attenuation, bitterness, color, and fermentation settings. It is now my BeerDroid 10 L Witbier v1.

9. The most interesting part was questioning the numbers

What I liked most about this process was not the automatic calculation itself. It was the loop:

1. Add an ingredient.
2. Look at the result.
3. Notice that something seems off.
4. Check the ingredient record or assumption.
5. Correct it.
6. Recalculate.

If I had reacted to OG 1.036 by simply adding more DME, I might have built an unnecessarily strong wort. Checking the ingredient record moved the estimate to 1.046. Then 10.2 EBC forced another check of the color values. Saaz required an explicit AA assumption, and the spice entries had to be corrected before they meant anything.

10. Next: what does this recipe actually cost to brew?

The recipe design is finished. The next question is how to buy the ingredients efficiently. A BrewArt-ingredient version and an individually sourced DME/hops/yeast/spice version have very different economics once I include multi-batch quantities, leftovers, shipping, primer, keg liners, and sanitizer.

I followed that recipe-design article with a full cost comparison that adds measured electricity, consumables, and equipment amortization.
Read the BeerDroid cost comparison →

Conclusion

Running low on BrewPrints pushed me toward the BrewArt Team Hoegaarden Wheat Clone, and buying the clone's extra spices pushed me one step further into designing my own recipe. Brewfather let me see each change immediately—but the useful part was checking the assumptions behind those numbers.

The current v1 design is OG 1.046 / FG 1.008 / 5.0% ABV / 12 IBU / 5.7 EBC (~2.9 SRM). It is still a calculated recipe, not a proven beer. The next real test is brewing it in the BeerDroid, watching fermentation, and tasting the finished result.

References

1. BrewArt Team, Hoegaarden Wheat Clone (E5 / X2 / Y5, coriander, orange peel, Ale program, ~5.5% ABV / 12 IBU / 11 EBC, and the 2024 estimate of roughly 5–7 days fermentation)
2. BrewArt, Element 5 (E5) (250 g and product description)
3. BrewArt, Enhancer 2 (X2) (250 g and product description)
4. BrewArt, Yeast 5 (Y5) (wheat yeast, banana/clove character, and 18–22°C recommended ferment range)
5. Brewfather, Recipe Designer documentation (recipe design and live recalculation of predicted values)
6. Briess, Brewer's Grade Malt Extracts (Bavarian Wheat DME at 3 SRM and Pilsen Light DME at 2 SRM, plus product details)
7. Lallemand Brewing, LalBrew Wit™ (17–25°C / 63–77°F temperature range and 75–82% attenuation)
8. Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — 24A. Witbier (Witbier style classification)

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