INGREDIENTS
1. 1 can of Blackrock Whispering wheat (or Brewcraft Belgian Wheat Beer)
2. 1.5kg (can) of liquid wheat malt (or 1.5kg of dried wheat malt – take your pick). Remember that the Hoegaarden is a wheat/barley blend.
3. 12g coriander seeds cracked.
4. 14g dried orange rind from the Seville orange, only available in winter months. If you can’t find it, do not use standard orange rind. Instead, dry out some mandarine peel or use a jar of bitter marmalade in the boil.
5. 750g – 1kg torrefied wheat.
6. 3944 Belgian Witbier Yeast.
7. Saaz hops (14g).
8. K Goldings hops (14g)
BREWING INSTRUCTIONS
1. In 2-3 litres of water, boil your goldings hops, crushed coriander seeds and dried orange rind (or marmalade). At the 5 minute mark, add the malt. At the 10 minute mark, add the Saaz hops. After 5 more minutes remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Steep your torrefied wheat in 5-6 litres of freshly boiled water for 30 minutes. See note below.
3. Strain the liquid from the steeped wheat into a smaller pot and boil this liquid for a few minutes ON A LOW HEAT (it’s mainly water but it will burn and congeal) – just to kill any nasties.
4. Strain the liquid from the boiled fermentables into your fermenter.
5. Add the boiled liquid from torrefied wheat to the fermenter.
6. Top up fermenter with COLD (I refrigerate as much water as I can the night before as your wort will be pretty hot at this point and needs cooling, particularly in summer).
7. Take your SG reading.
8. Add the yeast. Ideal pitch temp is around 22 degrees max.
NOTES:
The yeast is tempremental so keep it above 18c. If pitch temp is high, you may want to leave the slightest of gaps when you put the lid on the fermenter, just for the first two days. Otherwise your airlock may vomit krausen.
SOLVED: Don’t boil the orange for too long. I originally boiled for a full 15 minutes and it’s too strong. 5 minutes should be fine. THIS SHOULD NO LONGER BE A PROBLEM IF YOU USE THE DRIED MANDARINE RIND OR MARMALADE.
The torrefied wheat sucks up alot of liquid, hence I’ve increased the steep amount to 5-6 litres. I’d even recommend doing this step the night before, as six litres of freshly boiled water will murder your pitch temp, even with all the refrigerated cold water. At least that way you won’t have to refrigerate as much.
PHEW! That’s it. If anyone tries this exact recipe, please do a taste test alongside a real bottle of Hoegaarden and tell us how close it is. Failing that, I’m going to put this exact recipe down in two weeks and will report back in 6-8 weeks.
I reckon I’m now done with this one.
