Hoegaarden clone from wheat beer kit

JamesMcS · May 17, 2014

Hi all, I've been doing some reading about hoegaarden clone recipes. I've not yet taken the all grain plunge, so I wondered if it would be possible to make one from a wheat beer kit.

My concern is things like the orange peel and coriander going manky if I left them in there too long. Would I be better making a broth of sorts out of the flavour ingredients, and adding it just before bottling?

clibit · May 17, 2014

What I would do is use a wheat beer kit such as Coopers and add wheat DME or LME to it. Around 1.5kg of either would get you in the right area strength-wise, if you brew to about 20L. The LME would leave you a bit low actually. (Actually I would do a mini mash rather than use DME/LME cos it would make a big difference, but DME/LME will do a good job).

Boil the extract for 15 mins with some hops like Styrian Goldings or Saaz, or both. About 14g. Then add crushed coriander seed (20g ish) and orange peel 5 mins before the end. Just take the zest from some fresh oranges, not the white pith underneath. You'll need about 2-3 tablespoons, apparently. Or buy some dried peel from a HB supplier. Mix your kit in the FV in the usual way and add the contents of the boil to the FV through a strainer, and top up to 20L.

Then the key ingredient is the yeast. You want to invest in the proper yeast, or you won't get a Hoegaarden beer. I believe you want Whitelabs WLP400 or Wyeast 3944. Ferment around 20-22C. Apparently Brewferm Blanche wheat yeast is a pretty good dried alternative though.

The yeast will make it. Don't skimp on the yeast dude. :nono:

Rivvo · May 18, 2014

Brewferm Blanche is fine, as apparently is wb06, however I wouldn't use ground coriander, I would crush up about 25g of coriander seeds, by crush I mean crack rather than grind them into a powder, there is a basic ag recipe on JBk when you feel ready by a poster called 'dave o '

JamesMcS · May 18, 2014

Thanks for the tips chaps - I've got a full shed at the moment but I'll be giving this a go as soon as I have some space

clibit · May 18, 2014

I did mean crushed seeds sorry. Not the powdered stuff.

serum · May 18, 2014

I did this with the brewferm kit. I added 15g each of curacao peel and crushed coriander to the FV for 2 weeks until it got to the right gravity. It's still maturing at the moment so I don't know how the finished product will be but when I tasted it at 2 weeks to check carbonation the orange flavour was pretty strong. Hopefully it'll die down.

It doesn't go off if left in the FV. If anything I'd consider leaving it in for less time than I did.