During the summer, I had a taste for Witbiers, and read about Hoegaarden Grand Cru, a more alcoholic (8.5% ABV) Belgian White, launched in 1985. I seem to remember I found this Hoegaarden Grand Cru recipe on BrewersFriend, maybe not. Anyway, the beer came out mighty tasty, so I reckon it’s worth resharing.
To be fair, I’ve never actually tried a Hoegaarden Grand Cru, though not for the want of trying to source it. Which in fact was why I decided to have a crack at making it. So I can’t make any promises about its authenticity.
Like I say, it’s pretty strong, and got me a bit more tipsy than intended, a couple of times.
Have fun!
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Hoegaarden Grand Cru Recipe (Clone)
- Cook Time: 1h
- Total Time: 3h
- Yield: 19 Litres 1x
- Category: All Grain Beer
- Method: BIAB (Brew in a Bag)
- Cuisine: Belgian
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
A strong Belgian White beer, it’s possibly less of a summery beverage than most witbiers, and will warm yer cockles on an Autumn evening just fine.
Ingredients
Fermentables:
- 2.8kg Extra Pale Maris Otter
- 2.8kg Wheat Malt
- 0.7kg torrified wheat
- 0.7kg flaked torrified oats
- 1kg honey
Hops:
- 56.50 g East Kent Goldings
- 37g Saaz
Yeast:
- 1 x Fermentis Safale K-97 Yeast 11g
Flavourings:
- Bitter orange peel 15g
- Black peppercorns 4g
- Coriander seeds 15g
- Chamomile tea bags x 3
Instructions
To make my wort, as always I’m using the BIAB (Brew in a Bag) method.
1. Fill your boiler with 25 litres of water, and heat to 69°c, so that your strike temperature ought to be the desired 67°c by the time you’ve added all my grain.
2. Add the grain bill slowly, stirring constantly to break-up any dough balls.
3. Check the temperature of your mash once all the grain’s been added. If it’s above 67°c add some ice or cold water, or sterilised ice packs until your mash is back down to 67. If it has dropped below 67 (more likely), heat it back up to temperature.
4. Put the lid on tightly, and hold the grain/water mix at 67°c for one hour. It’s advisable to check back on it every 15 – 20 minutes, giving a good stir and checking that the temperature is holding ok. It’s fine to heat it again to get the temperature back where it needs to be.
5. After one hour of mashing, remove the grain bag, drain it, and squeeze it. I’ll pour a couple of litres of water through it at this point, to try and catch more of the malty goodness.
6. Next, get your wort to the boil, and once it is there, you’ll start your hop additions!
7. We don’t want too much hop character, just a slight bittering. So get all the hops into one single hop bag, and throw that into the wort for 50 minutes, as soon as you get a rolling boil happening.
8. After 50 minutes, add your flavourings, in a hop sock, and boil for a further 10 minutes.
9. No need to bother with a whirlfloc tablet – this beer’s supposed to be a little cloudy. Boil for another five minutes, and turn off the heat.
10. Start cooling your wort using a wort chiller until it gets down to an appropriate temperature for pitching your yeast. Now is a good time to start sanitising your fermentation vessel, hydrometer, etc, and also to rehydrate your yeast, according to the instructions on the packet.
11. Transfer cooled wort into your sanitised fermentation vessel, checking its temperature, and making a note of its OG (Original Gravity). If the temperature is down to around 25°c, you’ll be fine to pitch your rehydrated yeast. Pop the lid on, with an airlock, and leave to ferment for seven days.
12. After another 7 days, your beer should be good to bottle or keg.
Notes
Mashing: 1 hour
Boil: 1 hour
Hop additions: One single addition for 1 hour boil
Flavourings: 10 minute boil
ABV: 7.6%
Keywords: Witbier, Hoegaarden, Grand Cru, All-Grain
Have fun making this, and also drinking it. If you’re just getting into home brewing, and are wondering what equipment you need to make it, I have a list, here…
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