WhoGarden (hoegaarden clone)

[Saccharomyces]

Use good quality Indian coriander and don't crush it too much. I used 1oz of Coriander in my wit, but I crushed it with a mortar and pestle. You don't want to pulverize it.

 

[ApolloSpeed]

i crush mine with a beer bottle! hahahaha

 

[lspr_mtu]

I'm also doing a Hoegaarden clone this Saturday, no cumin for me though regarding the yeast, it seems generally accepted that WP400 is the stuff. However, has anyone determined for sure whether or not the bottle sediment is the real yeast or whether it is just a conditioning yeast? Reason being - I harvested some from a bottle already (before I found out about WP400) and bought WP400 as a back-up. I'm tempted to try the harvested yeast (mainly for novelty) and in case it has picked up any characteristics from sitting in a Hoegaarden bottle. Is this a good idea, or should I just use the WP400 and dump the other stuff?

I'm not that risk-averse, but I don't want to ruin a whole batch just because I used a cheap-ass conditioning yeast on it.

 

[Saccharomyces]

This page claims that the Hoegaarden is bottle conditioned with the primary strain.

That said, whenever possible I use White Labs or Wyeast and then wash the primary cake. Splitting the saved yeast across four jars brings the per-batch cost down to less than dry yeast. There is nothing wrong with culturing your own yeast as long as you are psychotic about sanitation and you slowly step the starter up 3-4x all the way up to 2L.

 

[lspr_mtu]

This page claims that the Hoegaarden is bottle conditioned with the primary strain.

That said, whenever possible I use White Labs or Wyeast and then wash the primary cake. Splitting the saved yeast across four jars brings the per-batch cost down to less than dry yeast. There is nothing wrong with culturing your own yeast as long as you are psychotic about sanitation and you slowly step the starter up 3-4x all the way up to 2L.

I brewed on Saturday with my cultured yeast. I stepped it to 1L, but didn't have enough time to get it to 2L. I aerated the wort a little to help compensate - time will tell if that will be enough or not. Either way, it was bubbling aggressively by Sunday morning so we'll see what happens. I still have that WLP400 I can step up and throw in a secondary if the FG isn't where I need it to be.

 

[DeathBrewer]

if you're going to pitch the WLP400 because the yeast isn't attenuating well, you can do it in the primary. i wouldn't rack off your yeast cake early, even if you are repitching.

 

[lspr_mtu]

Well, I ended up pitching the cultured yeast rather than the WLP400 - just because I felt like being adventurous. That was seven days ago. I went to keg it tonight and, to my surprise, there was still a thick layer of krausen on top. Evidently, the yeast hasn't finished its job yet - but I guess it hasn't quit on me either. The gravity is only at about 1.022 now - I had a target FG of 1.011. I've attached a picture below. I guess I'll just let it go another several days and check it until the krausen is gone - but should I be concerned that it's taking so long? I still have the WLP400 that I can pitch if needed.

FYI, I'm not planning on doing a secondary fermentation - I'm going to age for a couple months in the keg right after primary. My reasoning is that I'm going for that cloudy "wit" look. Thanks.

 

[Saccharomyces]

This strain takes 2-3 weeks to finish for me. It's a slow one.

Oh, and don't age it. This beer is best one month after brewday. After that it starts to lose some of its flavor. After six weeks the spice and yeast character is more muted than after four. More than two months it's still good, but it's not great.

 

[DeathBrewer]

7 days is too quick. it can be done, but i would wait two weeks and then go straight to keg.

you want cloudy, you don't want sludge.

 

[lspr_mtu]

Thanks for the tip(s). Like I said, this is my first AG batch, and it's never taken me more than 4-5 days for primary before.

 

[DeathBrewer]

different yeasts work different ways. wit yeasts don't work quite as fast as hefeweizen yeast IME, for example. and if you aren't using a secondary, you should always leave in the primary longer.

i've had beer go from grain to glass in just 5 days, but it takes a big starter, arousal of the yeast, finings and/or filtering, and special care through the whole process.

trust me, your beer will be better if you let it wait a little longer. no sense in risking mucky beer just to save a few days time. and if it's not finished fermenting completely, you could stall fermentation and leave it sweet. not worth it IMO.

 

[lspr_mtu]

different yeasts work different ways. wit yeasts don't work quite as fast as hefeweizen yeast IME, for example. and if you aren't using a secondary, you should always leave in the primary longer.

i've had beer go from grain to glass in just 5 days, but it takes a big starter, arousal of the yeast, finings and/or filtering, and special care through the whole process.

trust me, your beer will be better if you let it wait a little longer. no sense in risking mucky beer just to save a few days time. and if it's not finished fermenting completely, you could stall fermentation and leave it sweet. not worth it IMO.

Thanks. I agree, I always try to error on the longer side when in doubt. I'm certainly not in any rush, I still have 3 full kegs

 

[PWalk]

So three weeks in the bottle now and my version of this is coming out bitter on the pallette. I'm wondering if I over did it with the bitter orange peel because I went light on the hops both at the beginning and end of the boil using Willamette to bitter and Saaz for aroma. I'll post up the recipe once I get home but figured I'd get some speculation on the orange peel first. I used 1 oz. in the boil.

 

[DeathBrewer]

1 oz is quite a bit. i only used 0.25 oz of bitter orange peel in mine.

 

[PWalk]

You know I thought I might have been adding too much when I did the full ounce but I really like the scent it lends a beer so I figured I'd go bigger with it not figuring it would lend a significant bittering effect.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I don't like the effect of bitter orange peel myself, it adds a bitterness which really detracts from the smoothness of the beer. I use orange marmalade instead as was suggested in Radical Brewing, 6oz went into my last Wit (DB has tried it) and I think it could take up to 12oz next time.

 

[adamjab19]

what about rolled oats in a wit recipe? anyone add them for some mouthfeel? heard it on the jamil show but they never gave an amount or a percentage. how much for a 5 gallon batch? oh and is 62*F too cold for wlp400?

 

[DeathBrewer]

62°F will work...maybe take a little longer, but it'll be nice and clean.

never used rolled oats.

 

[Saccharomyces]

what about rolled oats in a wit recipe? anyone add them for some mouthfeel? heard it on the jamil show but they never gave an amount or a percentage. how much for a 5 gallon batch? oh and is 62*F too cold for wlp400?

See the recipe in my dropdown, I use flaked (rolled) oats. I prefer to ferment with this strain around 72*F. I did my last batch at 68*F and I was not happy with the yeast character, it was too clean.

 

[DeathBrewer]

oh, rolled oats are the same as flaked oats? i are stupid. they will work great.

ferment temp on what you would like. i like most of my beers pretty clean, sacc likes the funk

 

[adamjab19]

thanks guys.

 

[PWalk]

So I pulled out another bottle tonight to try and what a difference a little time makes. Almost zero bitterness right now and the beer is extremely drinkable. It's damn near one of my finest brews yet. Just another reason to never give up on a batch.

 

[nghtmre4u]

Well i brewed this up yesterday part of a double brew day along with b/m centenial blonde.I was getting nervous being the first time i used liquid yeast and only my 3rd a/g.Pitched the yeast at 9:30 pm last night and as of 2:00pm today no airlock activity.Well here is a pic of it at 10:30 pm est the pic sucks as it is a cell phone pic.The smell coming out of the airlock is amazing.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Hope you have a blowoff tube handy. I ferment this yeast in a bucket for a reason.

 

[nghtmre4u]

yes was just sanitizing it.sure glad i bought one to have just incase

 

[Saccharomyces]

I have the same wine filtering gizmo. I like it.

This yeast is a champ in the mid 70's, gives an awesome phenolic character, but at such a high temp it really does get a mean krausen on it!

 

[nghtmre4u]

Fermeter is in the mid 70s i just installed blow off tube and turned down the heat in the fermenting room want to try and keep it around 70-72.I like the mini jet filter for some of my wines makes a big difference on some of them.

 

[kscomp0]

Sacch:
How did your Grado Witbier turn out?
I am putting together a Wit and am interested in the inclusion of corn sugar.
I guess the sugar just seems somewhat redundant to me.
Why not just decrease the percentage of wheat in the recipe? Perhaps do a 70:30 Pils:unmalted wheat. Isn't most of the body coming from the unmalted wheat, or does the corn sugar give you an even lighter body because you can decrease both the pils and unmalted wheat overall?
Basically, I am wondering about the difference between:
45% Pils
45% unmalted wheat
10% corn sugar
or
70% Pils
30% unmalted wheat

Do you think that either of these would get closer to the lightness of Hoegaarden as opposed to a 40:60 Pils:unmalted wheat recipe?

Cheers

 

[DeathBrewer]

the corn sugar would definitely lighten the body.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Ever come up with a final Hoegarden Clone DB?