Advice on brewing a Hoegaarden clone

[HantsGaz]

Hi All,

Wonder if you can help me out with a few questions:

1. Recipe - 50% Pilsner Malt/50% Wheat Malt or Flaked Wheat? Understanding that Flaked Wheat is unmalted maybe a blend of Flaked and Wheat Malt?

2. What quantity of crushed coriander seeds should & use? And what time are they added to the boil – last 10 minutes I was thinking?

3. Where do I get Curacao orange peel from and what quantity should I use?

4. Yeast: I have WLP300 but that’s Hefe yeast. Could I use that I should I get a Belgian Wit style - if so which one is best for a Hoegaarden clone?

5. Fermentation temp: What's the best range - low 20's?

6. Fining - maybe a strange question! Is the cloudiness of the beer just due to haze from the wheat or is there still suspended yeast in the finished beer? I was wondering whether I can fine it, then hopefully chilling it will throw the required haze. Or is the yeast part of the taste? I wondering as I can’t quite remember the last bottle of Hoegaarden I drank, but I'm sure it didn’t have any yeast deposit in the bottom of the bottle - hence the fining question.

7. Carbonation - 20 to 25 psi?

Many thanks, Gaz.

[mysterio]

1. Forget about malted wheat, Hoegaarden don't use it and neither should you. 50/50 blend of pilsner malt and flaked wheat, with up to 10% oats to help with the body (about half a kilo of rolled porridge oats in a 5 gallon batch max). Try and do a rest at 50C for 20 minutes and infuse with boiling water up to about 68C. Oh and use oat husks to help lautering, you might want to soak these a bit so your beer doesnt taste overly 'oatey'.

2. Try half an ounce (14g) of good quality crushed coriander. Crush it yourself, most folks reckon the plumper seeds you get from an indian grocer are best, this is what I use purely because they're the cheapest. You can get a lifetime supply for a couple of quid although it does lose its freshness quickly, even whole. I just toss it in a couple of minutes from the end, anything longer is 'for the neighbours' as they say.

3. Just get some nice oranges from the grocer and peel off the skin (zest part). Anywhere from 20-50g of this per 5 gallons depending on how orangey you want it.

4. If you're serious about brewing an authentic Wit, the Hoegaarden yeast is available (WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale from Hop & Grape is what I use). There is also a wyeast version from the other big HB stores. Make a starter with it and pitch when active (usually 48h)

5. If you're using that yeast, pitch at 20 and allow to rise to 22C, it may stall slightly before the end of fermentation and might need racking to secondary/keg.

6. I don't bother with any sort of finings. It's a good one to bottle so you get a bit of yeasty deposit. There is a fine layer of yeast in hoegaarden, more noticable in the large bottles. However it's great in the keg too. Just carbonate until it tastes right. The PSI is going to depend on temps.

I'm brewing another wit beer next week so let us know how you get on

[HantsGaz]

Thanks a lot mysterio - very comprehensive advice. I need to get the yeast & husks – so have just ordered them and will most likely do the brew next weekend.

How long do you leave it in the fermenter after fermentation has finished? I normally leave beers for a couple of days after completion – does the same apply here?

Rgds,
Gaz.

[mysterio]

Yeah just follow your normal brewing practice after that. Should taste good a couple of weeks after fermentation.

[edit1now]

Protz and Wheeler's clone in BCEBAH has dried Curacao orange peel, which you can get from The Home Brew Shop in Farnborough if you're keen. Their internet service is excellent - I ordered on Sunday and the stuff would have been delivered on Wednesday if I'd been in.

[HantsGaz]

Cool - thanks edit1now.

[Earth Titan]

After doing some intensive research this afternoon hic.... I can definitely report this will be my next brew...

Thanks for the guidance everyone.

[HantsGaz]

Finally got my ingredients delivered this week. Here's my plan for the recipe for a 19L batch:

Amount, Item Type, %
0.50 kg Oat Hulls - soaked (0.0 EBC) Adjunct 10.00 %
2.00 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.0 EBC) Grain 40.00 %
2.00 kg Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC) Grain 40.00 %
0.50 kg Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC) Grain 10.00 %

28.35 gm Goldings, East Kent (60 min) Hops 21.7 IBU
15.00 gm Orange Peel, Curaco (Boil 5.0 min)
30.00 gm Coriander Seed - crushed (Boil 5.0 min)

Mash: 90 mins (rest at 50C for 20 minutes and infuse with boiling water up to about 68C for a further 70 mins)
Boil time: 90 mins

1 Pkgs Belgian Wit Ale (White Labs #WLP400) Yeast-Wheat

Only thing I'm not sure about (and I didn't ask before) was the hops variety? I have EKG, Fuggles, Northdown, Challenger, Hallertauer Mittelfrueh and Saaz. Does anyone have any guidance on what I should use for a Hoegaarden clone? Also, how does the recipe look?

Thanks, Gaz.

[mysterio]

Recipe looks good, I would half the amount of coriander though personally, you'll still really notice it. I used 11g per 5gallons yesterday and you can smell the coriander wafting out of the FV this morning.

EKGs would be a decent choice (or saaz or hallertau). I used some Stryrians because thats what I had on hand. I don't think it's hugely important. Stay away from US 'C' hops.

The oat husks, you could try putting handfulls in a sieve and run it under cold water slowly until the water looks clear, taste some of the cloudy water so you know what to look out for in the beer. It's got a pronounced oat/cereal flavour and can show up in a delicate beer like this quite easily.

[HantsGaz]

Thanks mysterio - all set for tommorrow now.

[mysterio]

Looking forward to seeing how it goes

[HantsGaz]

Me too! Very intrigued how this one will work out. The mash initial strike at 50c has been going for about 10 mins now.

[HantsGaz]

Brewday was mostly successful. The only thing that was a bit out of plan was the final gravity - ended up with 1044, when I was aiming to get ~ 1048 - strange that my preboil gravity for 28L was spot on at 1038 and my post boil volume was 22.5L, but still only ended up with 1044. Doesn't make sense and this keeps on happening!!

Anyway, the wort started fermenting approx 12 hours after pitching the yeast and after 18 hours had a good 4 inch head on it. It smells lovely too – really looking forward to trying this one. Thanks for all the advice so far, mysterio.

Gaz.

[mysterio]

1.044 should be fine, certainly in the right territory, if it keeps on happening then you might want to look at your efficiency calculations. If it was just this batch, then I usually lose a few points of efficiency with my witbiers (probably because there is so much unmalted cereal in the mash)... simple remedy is to take a gravity readings around 5-10 mins from the end of the boil. If you fall short then it doesn't hurt to boil for another 10 - 15 minutes.

[HantsGaz]

My efficiency calculations are normally very accurate for the pre boil gravity - it's just the post boil always seems to fall short. If I work on the calculation of gravity points post boil = gravity points pre boil * pre boil volume / post boil volume. So in this case: 38*28/22.5 = 47.3, but I only made it to 44. I'm assuming that there shouldn’t be any sugar loss during the boil, but perhaps the hops absorb some?

Regarding the brew - well it's nearly been fermenting for nearly two weeks now! It went off like a rocket with a really good creamy yeasty head on it, but after about 4 days there was no activity - so thinking it maybe had fermented out I left it for three days before barrelling - but then I read on White Labs web site that this yeast has a tendency to do that - so I took a gravity reading and sure enough it had stopped at 1022. So, I gave it a good rousing and within a few hours it was off like a rocket again - in fact this time the krausen got even bigger - and it's still fermenting (giving off plenty of CO2 now). Hopefully this will finish soon....