Hoegaarden Clone(ish)

[simple one]

This is basically going back to conquer past failures..... Hoegaarden clone.

25 Litres Brew Length

Grain:
2.9 kg Lager Malt
2.9 kg Flaked Wheat
Hand full of oat husks.
Mash Temp 66C and mashed for a good 2-3 hours (whilst watching GP)

Hops and Spice:
50g Saaz 60 mins (15 IBUs)
Xg Toasted Corriander 5 mins
Xg Grated Orange Peel 5 mins

Yeast: T-58

Should be starting around 0500, so as to watch the GP. Any advice on corriander, orange, IBUs, cereal mashes etc greatly recieved.

[simple one]

Well alarm didn't go off so have to settle for HLT on at 0600. At least I saw the start. I can't believe the Beeb can fill an hour of tele with no action.

[6470zzy]

In the past I have gone with 1 tsp of coriander seed for 5 minutes and with the zest of 3 oranges at flame out.

Be careful with the zesting of the oranges and don't get any of the pith.

Cheers

[simple one]

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunetly a little too late. Went with 15g of lightly toasted corriander and the zest of an unwaxed lemon (forgot the oranges!).

Heres the photos:

Mash on! Was a bit worried about the flaked wheat not being part of a cereal mash. Opinion seems divided about how to get the best out of the stuff. Anyhow I just went for a simple 2.5 hour single infusion. Started up in the 67C and allowed it to drop down to around 62C (such was the worry of low efficiency).


Bang on this time. Which is a shame.... whats a hoegaarden clone without a haze.


All wrapped up.... now to watch a quite boring GP.


First runnings looked a little yellowy. It started to lighten out as the sparge went on.


Went for 35g of EKG to get an IBU of 16. Looking forward to using the T58, if it tastes anything like wyeast 1214 it should be a good taste profile for a Hoegaarden clone.

[adm]

Good stuff. You got up too early though!

I love Wheat beers, I'm just working my way through a Williams IPA, but I might go and have a pint of my Weiss beer after that.

[WishboneBrewery]

oo, pictures... Looks like that bed cover has been in the wars!!
I've got a wheaty-Leffe-ish thing planned. How did you sparge go with the flaked wheat?

[simple one]

Ha ha! The bed cover has seen more brewing action than me! Its Guregh's old mash tun insulator, had it off him when I bought a load of his kit!

More phots:

When I build my shed in my new garden I will build something to make the humping and dumping easier! I have found if you want to keep the gunk in the boiler a good ball tap is essential.... Set it on a slow speed, and the clear runnings are almost immediate.


Close up.... Feels a bit dark. Not sure where its come from.


Loads of crud in the boiler. This is where I bodged up last time. Didn't sparge well, so LOADS of crud went in to the boiler, and then didn't use the hops as a filter (hops bag). The crud went in to the fermenter and made the finished beer horribley acidic.


WELL! All in all a very good days brewing. Ended up with 26.5L instead of 25L. Ended up with 1.054 instead of 1.050. So the IBUs are dropped a bit, which isn't a bad thing for this beer. And the spices will be diluted slightly too, again not really a problem. Efficiency up to 85%.

BUT! The proof is in the pudding/drinking, and I shall do a blind side by side tasting. Well one more corny left to fill...... Back soon!

[simple one]

Oh and happy anniversary JBK! Consider glass raised.

[micmacmoc]

Wow that looks tasty! I too did a Hoegaarden type on saturday, I too did'nt get up early enough and consequently did'nt finish 'til 2pm. Mine is much darker than yours but I used 50-50 maris otter and wheat malt. I used fresh orange peel (14g) and coriander (20g) with munich yeast, its foaming away merrily at about 17C.
If this works it'll save me a fortune in tescos.

[simple one]

Yes I used to use wheat malt for my wits... but as you have found its too dark, and in my opinion produces a more germanic wheat beer. This is my first with flaked wheat.... Even though my eff was through the roof, I might try boiling the flaked wheat in to a sludge next time to get more haze and wheatyness (even though I haven't seen or tasted the final product).

Yeast Head: Still unsure if T58 is a top cropper or a bottom fermenter..... It looks pretty foamy.

[wgardner]

Looks good! Let us know how it goes on, I'm interested to see what the lemon subsitute did

[simple one]

How did you sparge go with the flaked wheat?

Didn't see the question tagged on the end.

To tell the truth, next time I won't bother with the oat husks. The sparge would have been fine without them (although my copper manifold is very open, and I use the tap to slow the process down). The flaked wheat breaks down, but not in to a gloop, which is what I thought would cause sparge issues. When I realised that some of the wheat was still quite solid, I began to worry about effiency issues! Totally ignoring my own advice of not to worry about anything until it actually goes wrong.

[simple one]

If this works it'll save me a fortune in tescos.

Could not have put it better myself. Thats one of the major driving forces behind me at the moment. Hoegaarden is bloody expensive for what it is.... In fact most of the decent stuff is.

[micmacmoc]

Have you come up with a name yet? I'm thinking burnedgaarden from when i burned the newly layed turf with the outpourings of the immersion cooler on my last brew. Mrsmoc was not very pleased with me. I'm doing HSBish this morning, predictably I'm getting rained on. Worth it though!
I'm wondering whether my 'wheaty' has enough orange in, I found my notes:

30Lt
wheat malt 2.5Kg
m.otter 2.5 kg
hallertau 40g(90)
progress 19g(90)
12g roasted and ground coriander, crushed (10)
fresh orange peel 20g (10)

I'm wondering whether I have made a simple error using fresh orange peel, whether most recipes give the weight as for dried, 20g of dried would have a whole lot more flavour than 20g of fresh. If thats so and theres no late hopping I could have a very dull beer! I'll just have to try some I suppose.

[simple one]

No name as of yet. Which is a problem as this is all going in to bottles, and I enjoy doing the labels. It might en with garden, as is the tradition!

I don't think the orange has the biggest impact on the taste. Hoegaarden use curaco orange peel but I have seen recipes that use all sorts of fresh citrus zest... even grapefruit. They all claim to be close. The one thing I would change on yours is the wheat malt. Use some sort of unmalted wheat. And go for a low colour marris or a lager/pilsner malt. Yeast is also an important factor. The yeast profile on my other belgians tends to mask most ingriedients. So it could all come down to some very clever temperature control.

Don't worry about hops, less is more with this one. Stick to 15 ibus or less and you can't go wrong, you look bang on with your hops. I wouldn't say late hopping is true to the beer (unless its clever use of a C hop).