Color of Hoegaarden Wit more orange than yellow??

Can anyone tell me why my Hoegaarden Wit came out more orange than the signature soft yellow? Dissapointed. I will be bottling this today after 4 weeks fermenting. Is this an effect of water chemistry? Ingredients below.

8oz flaked wheat
8 oz belgian aromatic malt
4 oz flaked oats
4 oz oat hulls
5.5 lb Muntons DME
1 oz east kent goldings
1/2 oz kent goldings
3/4 oz bitter orange peel
1-1/4 tsp crushed coriander
1/4 tsp crushed cumin
1/2 oz czech saaz

Wyeast 3463

Any help would be great. Tasted it after taking gravity reading, tastes great.

I think it was the extract. The Hoegaarden I remember is a very pale almost whitish beer. I don't think you'll ever get that pale using extract, even the palest extracts still come out darker.

Kaz said:

I think it was the extract. The Hoegaarden I remember is a very pale almost whitish beer. I don't think you'll ever get that pale using extract, even the palest extracts still come out darker.

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Well, that makes me feel like going all grain!!! Anyone else have thought?

My limited experience has shown me that extracts end up being darker... my first batch I ended up caramelizing my extract and my beer came out really dark, but tasted just the way i thought it should.

You can get lighter than your picture with extract, look for light or extra light and if its liquid, make sure it is fresh, LME will darken over time. You can also add half the extract with 15 minutes left in the boil. I didn't want my previous post to discourage, you can get a beer a little lighter than in your picture, but I don't think you'll ever get to Hoegaarden. But if it tastes great, who cares!

Kaz said:

I think it was the extract. The Hoegaarden I remember is a very pale almost whitish beer. I don't think you'll ever get that pale using extract, even the palest extracts still come out darker.

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Not necessarily true. If you use extra light DME, with late extract additions, you can make a beer that's extremely light. I do it all the time.

The beer in the OP looks like the brewer added all the extract at the beginning and had some caramelization.

CrookedTail said:

Not necessarily true. If you use extra light DME, with late extract additions, you can make a beer that's extremely light. I do it all the time.

The beer in the OP looks like the brewer added all the extract at the beginning and had some caramelization.

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I just followed the recipe but again I am new at this. So that being said what would be the recommended time to add the extract using the extra light?

Thanks!

I could be wrong but I don't remember seeing wheat DME for sale. Not that I buy a whole lot of the specialty extracts to begin with, but you really want roughly 50/50 pilsner and wheat in that recipe usually.


I definitely had trouble getting any recipe that used liquid extract to come out as pale as I'd like. With DME I never had that problem.

dnichols said:

I just followed the recipe but again I am new at this. So that being said what would be the recommended time to add the extract using the extra light?

Thanks!

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Add 20-50% of the extract at the beginning of the boil. Add the rest in the final 10-15 minutes. Use dry extract. LME will always come out darker.

Here's a beer I've made using this method. It can be done!

weirdboy said:

I could be wrong but I don't remember seeing wheat DME for sale. Not that I buy a whole lot of the specialty extracts to begin with, but you really want roughly 50/50 pilsner and wheat in that recipe usually.


I definitely had trouble getting any recipe that used liquid extract to come out as pale as I'd like. With DME I never had that problem.

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Muntons and Briess both make wheat DME using 65/35% Wheat/Pilsner malts.

It's much harder to get a lighter beer made with LME. You can do it with dry extract.

I'd recommend that you steep a lb of flaked oats for 30 before you start up your boil. It clouds the wit very much and lightened my extract wit from orange to a yellow golden.

CrookedTail said:

Add 20-50% of the extract at the beginning of the boil. Add the rest in the final 10-15 minutes. Use dry extract. LME will always come out darker.

Here's a beer I've made using this method. It can be done!

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I second this, I just kegged a american wheat beer that used wheat dme and light dme and it is about the same color as hoegaarden.

CaveBrewing said:

I second this, I just kegged a american wheat beer that used wheat dme and light dme and it is about the same color as hoegaarden.

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Yup. I've brewed extract hefeweizens that are as light as any commercial version.

CrookedTail said:

Muntons and Briess both make wheat DME using 65/35% Wheat/Pilsner malts.

It's much harder to get a lighter beer made with LME. You can do it with dry extract.

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Just a note I did not use LME in this recipe. It was 5.5 lbs of DME. Next time I brew a wheat I will not boil the entire extract and boil 50% near the end.

Concur that the color is primarily due to kettle caramelization. Late addition will help with that.

Aromatic malt will also contribute significantly to color in that proportion. I'd omit it next time.

Cheers,

Bob

I am not sure why but I have also noticed that Briess Wheat DME is lighter than Muntons Wheat DME.

weirdboy said:

but you really want roughly 50/50 pilsner and wheat in that recipe usually.

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^^ This. My Wit's that I did I used did a 50/50 wheat to barley ratio. Since the DME & LME I use is 65% Wheat and 35% barley I used 5lbs of Wheat LME from NothernBrewer and 1.75lbs of Briess Pilsen DME. Mine still came out more orange but I've had many commercial Wit's that were the same orangey color as the one I made. As mentioned it's harder to achieve such light colors using wheat extract. I'm stressing the wheat extract part cause you can get very light extract beers with Pilsen extract but Wit's use wheat and wheat extracts seem to mostly all have a more orange color than equivalent all grain wheats.


Rev.

Is it still beneficial to do a late DME addition even if doing a full boil?

cincybrewer said:

Is it still beneficial to do a late DME addition even if doing a full boil?

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I'd made a thread a few weeks back testing late addition vs. full boil and for some odd reason it only had one reply. I thought more would be interested in it, but oh well. Here it is:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/my-non-scientific-dme-darkening-test-w-pic-comparison-236005/

I found it really doesn't seem to matter. The experiment though wasn't scientific but if there were to be a big noticeable difference like everyone always claims then I think it would be more noticeable in my test.


Rev.

I made a few extract wits and they always turned out very light, even before I started doing late extract additions.

I used 50% Extra Light DME
50% Light wheat DME

Then the yeast, orange, coriander, and hops.

Rev2010 said:

^^ This. My Wit's that I did I used did a 50/50 wheat to barley ratio. Since the DME & LME I use is 65% Wheat and 35% barley I used 5lbs of Wheat LME from NothernBrewer and 1.75lbs of Briess Pilsen DME. Mine still came out more orange but I've had many commercial Wit's that were the same orangey color as the one I made. As mentioned it's harder to achieve such light colors using wheat extract. I'm stressing the wheat extract part cause you can get very light extract beers with Pilsen extract but Wit's use wheat and wheat extracts seem to mostly all have a more orange color than equivalent all grain wheats.


Rev.

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That's about the color of mine. It seems to taste fine. Just bottled yesterday. I am looking forward to this in the next few weeks. I love Wits. I will definitely try the late addition next time around and a lighter DME.

Yeah it's only a slight shade darker than the Blue Moon I have occasionally. Just Googled some pics for comparison and:






Rev.

I forgot that Blue Moon was darker. Are there any good clones for that?

Rev2010 said:

I'd made a thread a few weeks back testing late addition vs. full boil and for some odd reason it only had one reply. I thought more would be interested in it, but oh well. Here it is:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/my-non-scientific-dme-darkening-test-w-pic-comparison-236005/

I found it really doesn't seem to matter. The experiment though wasn't scientific but if there were to be a big noticeable difference like everyone always claims then I think it would be more noticeable in my test.


Rev.

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Very interesting. Thanks for that.

I don't know...from a visual standpoint, I like my Wit to look more orange in color. Don't get me wrong, I love the way Hoegaarden tastes. But to the eye....I like the more orange color.

Cheers

jamesjensen1068 said:

I don't know...from a visual standpoint, I like my Wit to look more orange in color. Don't get me wrong, I love the way Hoegaarden tastes. But to the eye....I like the more orange color.

Cheers

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You're not alone, I prefer it too to the pale yellow of Hoegaarden. It's just a richer looking color with a more golden orange hue. Not to mention it more closely matches the orange peel taste


Rev.

Hahaha...I did this same exact recipe with similar results. I've been drinking it from the keg and while it tastes good, I can tell it can be better. I gotta try this late malt addition thing

Just had a Hooegarden the other night, it was white. Dont remember it being actually white. I read somewhere that wheat LME is the exception with color being darker in LME as opposed to DME.