Wheat Beers

Tasting Notes

Beers that originate around Leuven and Hoegaarden are traditionally known as "white" beers because of their very pale color and a degree of cloudiness. They are Belgium's dessert beers, with a tangy, faintly acidic aftertaste, and are sharply refreshing, with hints of orange, honey, and spices.

Ingredients

White beers are brewed with unmalted wheat, malted barley, and, on occasion, oats. In brewing traditional white beers, the grain bill consisted of 55% malted barley, 40% unmalted wheat, and 5% unmalted oats. Unmalted wheat gives white beers firmness of body and graininess, more than their German counterparts. Traditionally, two-row pale malts have been the malt of choice, but some brewers have used six-row malts, presumably for their additional diastatic power.

Brewing Techniques

Hoegaarden is produced with a grist consisting of about 45% unmalted wheat, malted barley, and a small portion of oats (usually about 5%), as reported in Michael Jackson's Beer Companion. A decoction method is used in mashing. The beer is hopped with East Kent Goldings for dryness and Saaz for aroma, and it is spiced with coriander seeds, Curacao orange peels, and sometimes cumin seeds.

The information on this page was provided by beer-brewing.com (http://www.beer-brewing.com).