Hoegaarden

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RobinB

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Juat done Hoegaarden clone .. overall am pleased with it . Compared with the real thing , and yes its very similar. Bur it could do with being a bit sweeter ... how can I do this ... not now obviously as its in the barrel. Do I add something at the start, cos I reckon I will make this again.
 
Juat done Hoegaarden clone .. overall am pleased with it . Compared with the real thing , and yes its very similar. Bur it could do with being a bit sweeter ... how can I do this ... not now obviously as its in the barrel. Do I add something at the start, cos I reckon I will make this again.

I've got one conditioning in bottles at the moment based on a recipe I found online. Only change I made was I used Mandarina Bavaria hops rather than Saaz. Without knowing your grain bill and yeast that you used though, hard to suggest what you could tweak. Samples of mine have been about right for sweetness though. Did you go the route of flaked wheat, flaked oats etc? Or just malted wheat and pilsner malt?
 
Yes pilsen malt .. wheat malt ,, flaked wheat and oats.. fugles and saaz.. orange peel and coriander .. and wyeast
 
What kind of attenuation did you get from the yeast? I only got 71.7% apparent out of mine, which is a good part of the reason mine has some residual sweetness left, I used a dried yeast though infamous for poor attenuation.

I mashed at 65, however I did an acid rest for 20 minutes at 45 degrees too, which meant I had more sugars in there from the flaked wheat and oats than I would have otherwise too. Did you do a single infusion or a stepped mash?

Percentages could have an impact too. I used 36.4% flaked wheat and 10.9% flaked oats in the grain bill (hence the acid rest, aka a beta glucan rest). If you used the same Hoegaarden clone recipe I based off though (I just used different hops) odds are you used the same percentages, which would leave the yeast attenuation and the mash as potential reasons for a dryer beer. As Nightsky said, with a higher attenuating yeast, a higher mash temp would make sure you had more residual sugars left post fermentation still (I mashed lower knowing that M31 Belgian Wit is an under attenuator.).
 
Am quite new into grain brewing .. and Shrimp that sounds a bit complicated for me..the mash was done as one .. then the remainder of additives went into the boil...am pleased with it really.. will it change much over time ?? Ive got a big tall fridge ( in the garage ) and Im going to put my barrel in there , to chill the beer .
 
Time always changes a beer for sure, a wit though you tend not to wait on for too long, they're best drunk fresher than most styles. ;)

It sounds more complex than it was to be honest. I built my own electric BIAB boiler system, with a controller etc. So was a simple matter of setting it to a bit over 45 degrees C, mashing in the wheat and oats, leaving them to sit for 20 minutes at 45, then turning the temperature up to raise it all to 65 degrees, then once it reached that adding the pilsen malt for the rest of the normal mash. A false bottom kept the bag off the element, and I stirred whilst raising the temperature to keep things moving. It's a lot more complex if you do it the "proper" European way, with decoctions etc. :eek: If I hadn't of done it, my pump never would have coped with the gummy mess from so much flaked wheat.

Simpler route for you could well be to just mash at 67 degrees C (medium body mash), or use a lower attenuating yeast, if you want it a bit sweeter tasting. Trade off will be a lower ABV though with either method. I just about squeaked 5% (after priming) with mine with the low attenuating yeast, thanks to the step mash, 65 degree mash etc. Not always a bad thing though. Of course, that's assuming you think it's worth it for a bit more sweetness. If something isn't really broken, just not quite perfect, sometimes it's worth just taking a step back and shrugging. athumb..

Alternatively, double check your IBUs. Check that it's lack of perceived sweetness isn't rather the balance between sweetness from the malt and the bitterness from the hops, as that's quite simple to adjust by just using less hops at the start of the boil for lower IBUs.
 
Should I really stick to all these timings and temp .. will 5 or 10 mins here and there really matter ?
 
The best way to answer that is to suggest you try it on a cheap, basic, brew one day. The best way to find out the effect of changing timings is to try it yourself. It's no good me telling you about how I tried 60 minute mashing but got fed up of reduced efficiency, so settled on 90 minute mashing as I found it offered the best combination of relaxation time (brew days wipe me out! So maximising the time I can rest between activity is important to me.) and extraction efficiency, you need to see for yourself what works best for you. athumb..
 
Sorry bud, no idea as I don't use a pressure barrel. Tried them, found them a right pain in the rear, so stopped bothering. As a rule though, wheat beers are best drunk fairly fresh.
 
A wheat beer needs a high level of carbonation so plastic barrels are not really suitable. I don't use mine anymore either.

Aye, went for 2.8 volumes in my current one, and I don't think 3 volumes would have hurt either to be honest. Both though are higher than a plastic PB can cope with though I believe.

If you don't want to mess around with glass bottles, try PET ones. Been using them for ages now. Glass are nicer, but PET do the job, you just find yourself having to replace them more often I have found. The Coopers bottles are nicer to use when bottling, the longer necks makes it easier to judge when they're full, but they're more expensive too so I just use the Home Brew Online ones most of the time. Dirt cheap, and at least I don't have to be super annoyed when family members forget to return them after having some beer off me....
 
Yeah .. I have alot to learn... I tried the hoegaarden a week ago.. but tonight it tastes not so good !! What have I done .. am I going t0o far with this beer.. should I have tried something a little easier ? Overall am a little dissapointed ,,, I need to make something that I can say "" thats bloody good ""!
 
How do you feel about banana flavour? If you are a fan of it, have a go at making a more German wheat beer. You can make a super simple one with just pilsner malt and wheat malt, maybe a bit of munich for some complexity, bit of cara-pils if you want it a bit sweeter perhaps. Use a bavarian wheat yeast, job done.

I have to stay well away from brewing these. I don't like the really clovey ones, and my wife can't stand the banana flavoured ones... Hence I worked so hard to get the Belgian wit right.

You still need to bottle it though, as it still needs at least about 2.8 volumes of CO2 to be really good. If you want something you can put in a barrel, brew a British beer, some form of pale ale such as a bitter. To be honest though, I find everything is better with a bit more carbonation when you don't have the luxury of a proper hand pump to serve it from.
 

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