Help!

[Brewmaster-D]

I attempted to make a Hoegaarden clone for the first time today. I'm using a Morgans wheat beer extract can for the wheat beer base. Added to this, was 8L of boiling water, to which I added my orange peel and corriander seeds, and 0.75oz approx. of Saaz hops. My goal was to boil this for 15 mins to get out the orange peel, coriander, and hops aroma, and mix it in with the wheat beer extract. In all honesty, this 8L boil with the ingredients, did not smell all that nice to me. It sort of had a tea-like smell, that seemed ok eventualy, but initialy, it smelled like some whacked-out crap pasta sauce or something.
Just wondering , for anyone whos done a Hoegaarden clone before from extract, did you ever encounter this? Am I getting excited for no reason?
Any pointers would be awesome, thanks in advance!

D.

 

[digdan]

I attempted to make a Hoegaarden clone for the first time today. I'm using a Morgans wheat beer extract can for the wheat beer base. Added to this, was 8L of boiling water, to which I added my orange peel and coriander seeds, and 0.75oz approx. of Saaz hops. My goal was to boil this for 15 mins to get out the orange peel, coriander, and hops aroma, and mix it in with the wheat beer extract. In all honesty, this 8L boil with the ingredients, did not smell all that nice to me. It sort of had a tea-like smell, that seemed ok eventualy, but initialy, it smelled like some whacked-out crap pasta sauce or something.
Just wondering , for anyone whos done a Hoegaarden clone before from extract, did you ever encounter this? Am I getting excited for no reason?
Any pointers would be awesome, thanks in advance!

D.

I like to call them Belgian Whits. I actually bought Coriander and Orange peel in bulk to master this exact style of beer and found some harsh lessons. The coriander is the ingredient that is making the thing smell more like Mexican tea than a beer.

The good news is that it will mellow as the yeast takes root. The bad news, is that it only mellows so much. If you used too much then it will create a very distinctive tannin spice flavor, which will not age out, and is undesirable. I have a batch I made 5 months ago 3/4ths full because of this exact same reason. I only drink it when I'm really drunk, and even then I can make a sober judgment against the crushed coriander flavors.

I found this to be a good profile, but mind you I make mine very malty, so coriander weight may still be high.

60 Minutes
1.5 oz Saaz hops

20 Minutes
1.0oz dried orange peel
Irish Moss
0.5 oz Crushed Coriander

10 Minutes
2.0 oz dried orange peel
(optional/experimental) 1.0 oz chamomile
0.5 oz crushed corriander
0.5 oz Saaz Hops

5 Minutes
0.5 oz Crushed Corriander



My best batch was one that I did not crush the corriander.

 

[Dude]

We have a ton of Hoegaarden threads too, maybe you could search around and compare recipes to se what amounts they use. Seems to be a very popular beer to imitate.

digdan, your beer website is pretty cool.

 

[Mr_Turtlehead]

This thread is timely as I'm brewing a partial mash on Friday!

digdan, that is a cool beersite! Looks like you better steer clear of those "Blondes"

 

[Brewmaster-D]

Yea, I was following one of the recipes posted previously on this site, for a hoegaarden clone. I actualy cut back on how many corriander seeds I wanted to put in, so hopefuly that will work for me in the end. I was rather liberal with the orange peel, dont think its flavour would be something I'm totaly adverse to.
But I will drop the corriander seed amount even more next time, thanks for the info!

 

[brackbrew]

If your clone doesn't turn out, don't be discouraged. If you're still interested in trying make a good Hoegaarden clone, try using the recipe from the book, Beer Captured. I brewed it a couple weeks ago, with no notice of 'mexican tea' smells or anything. I'd say Belgian Wits in general have a much more spicy aroma than most other beers (that I've brewed, at least), so don't be discouraged by the smell during your brew. My fiance hates the smell when I brew, saying it reminds her of burnt cereal. She's more than happy to drink after it's ready, though. Haha.

Fear not, and BREW ON!