Hoegaarden worries

[redmarko]

Just finished bottling my second ever batch of homebrew.
The first ever batch I brewed was from a boots kit about 20 years ago. It was horrible.

I brewed Hoegaarden this time around using all grain method. My recipe and method are below.

grain only
3.5 lbs. pale malt
3.5 lbs. malted wheat
1 lb. flaked wheat
1 lb. flaked oats

3 AAU East Kent Goldings hops
(0.75 oz. at 4% alpha acid)
2 AAU Saaz hops (0.5 oz. at 4% alpha acid)
1/8 oz. lightly crushed coriander seed
1/4 oz. dried Curacao orange peel, shredded
1 cup unhopped light dry malt extract to prime



Step by Step:
Heat 11.35L (12 quarts) water to 72.78° C (163° F ). Crush whole grains and add, with flaked grains as well, to liquor. Hold mash at 66.67° C (152° F) for 90 minutes. Runoff and sparge with 14.20L (15 quarts) water at 76.67° C (170° F). Add DME, stir well, bring to a boil. Add East Kent Goldings hops, boil 45 minutes. Add Saaz hops, boil 15 minutes. Remove from heat, remove hops if possible. Add coriander and orange peel, steep 30 minutes.

Pour into fermenter along with enough pre-boiled and chilled water to make up 19.87L (5.25 gallons). Cool to 21.11° C (70° F), pitch yeast. Ferment at 18.33° C (65° F) for two weeks, rack to secondary and condition cooler 7.22° C (45° F) for three to four weeks. Prime with DME, bottle and age three to four weeks at 7.22° C (45°) to 10° C (50° F). Serve at 4.44° C (40° F) in a heavy glass tumbler.


OG = 1.048
FG = 1.011 
IBU = 16


My OG and FG were spot on.

The worries I have are:

1. My beer appears orangy coloured as opposed to white.
2. The taste is quite bitter at the back of the tongue and leaves a quaint after taste.
3. I forgot to aerate prior to adding yeast starter. ALthough my FG hit the mark.
4. I wasnt happy letting the curaco orange peel and corriander steep for 30 minutes as I would like to have hit the cold break from boil.
5. I wasnt able to remove the hops while the 30 minute steep was happening. I think this has led to the overbitterness.


Perhaps I'm worrying about nothing. I plan to leave the bottles for at least 3 weeks before trying 1. Maybe the bitterness will mellow. I dont suspect the colour will change.

Your thoughts expereinces are welcome.

[mysterio]

Hi,

Hoegaarden is actually a pretty easy beer to emulate, i'll try and answer your questions and point you in the right direction as far as possible.

1) The orangey colour is a from the malted wheat and pale ale malt. You want to use unmalted wheat as the wheat component. Flaked wheat works fine. Roughly half of that and half lager malt. That will give you a nice cloudy white colour.

2) Bitterness can come from a few things, but it will probably be hops, and that will mellow with time. If it's still too bitter, cut back on hops.

3) Not a big problem, this may enhance the fruity flavours - what yeast did you use? A proper witbier yeast is essential.

4) Cold break is a function of the temperature low you get, not the speed at which you crash after the boil. It just seems more effective because you can see it happening in front of your eyes. In reality it probably doesn't matter re: the spices, you can adjust next time.

5) Possibly, although it's normal to leave the hops in, just cut back the hops next time. It will mellow.

[redmarko]

Thanks Msyterio

So what your saying is to substitute the malted wheat ingredient with the same quantity of flaked wheat?

How long does it take for the bitterness to mellow in your experience?

[mysterio]

The recipe I make is pretty much half flaked wheat, and half lager malt. This gives a good approximation of hoegaarden. Adding oats is nice too and gives a much fuller beer.

Give it the full 3 weeks and the bottle, takes some patience

[dave-o]

Aye, make it just pils malt and flaked wheat for that ultra light Hoegaarden colour.

Your beer will be great though, just not very much like Hoegaarden. The bitterness will fade in a few weeks. No need for late hops in future. EKG not really suitable, but i guess you knew that.

[mysterio]

Celis used Kent Goldings in his original Hoegaarden before InBev bought it, so not totally out of place. Same with the oats.

[dave-o]

Didn't know that!

[redmarko]

Just cracked a bottle open after 1.5 weeks. The temp of the beer was 1.5 degrees C when I poured it (too cold to fizz I think)

Beer was flat. (Insufficient ime to carbonate?)
Beer was much more mellow. (good)
Fruity taste but not Hoegaarden. (infection??)

I primed with dry light spray malt extract. I made a mistake by adding the dry spray malt extract to the bottling bucket dry. It clumped together before eventually dissolving. (should I be dissolving dme in boiling water first? does it make a difference, given that it eventually dissolves)

I have been keeping the bottles at a temperature of 7.5 degrees C. (Is this too cold for carbonation?)

[mysterio]

Hi,

7.5C is too cold to carbonate. Room temperature, 18 - 25 C is more like it.

If the DME fully dissolved, then it should work. Just use sugar next time and dissolve it before adding.

[redmarko]

Would DME that hasnt carbonated affect the taste of the beer ie would it sweeten it as the sugars havent effectively been converted to co2.

My beer was sweet and flat.

[mysterio]

Yeah, it would. It would be like adding a teaspoon of DME to a pint of beer. I doubt that would taste great. Give it a few weeks in the warm.

[simple one]

Another tip is to add a teaspoon of flour with any spices at the 5-15 min mark. This keeps the haze in, and also gives the appearance of a lighter beer. Plus I swear you can taste a "thicker wheaty body" in suspension, instead of the "wheaty thinness" you get when it drops clear.

Just my opinion!

[dave-o]

The taste will change when it's been properly carbonated, so bring it inside for a few weeks. Don't expect it to be exactly like Hoegaarden though, as the recipe isn't hoegaarden.

[redmarko]

All worked out well in the end.
I brought the beer in for a week. Tried my first bottle and got carbonated beer which tastes great, not like hoegaarden but somewhere between hoegaarden and franzisganner.
The head retention is first class and the consistency of the head is creamy. The head lasts down to the last gulp.

[redmarko]

Dave-o

You recommended flaked wheat in place of malt wheat in order to get light colour.
Could I use torrified wheat in place of flaked wheat without repurcussion.

Also, is torrified and flaked wheat ok to do single mash in same manner in which you would do malted wheat at larger volumes of grain.?