Day 7, Jan 7 / Hoegaarden Original White Ale

Day 7 / Jan 7

Hoegaarden Original White Ale  (Witbier)

Hoegaarden Brewery / Hoegaarden, Belgium

Where:         Red, Hot & Blue, Herndon VA

 

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I didn't know they came from gardens...

 

Hoegaarden Witbier is a traditional, classic wheat beer, first brewed in 1445.  It is a typical example of a wheat beer – cloudy, unfiltered, light, with tastes of coriander and orange peel.  It’s quite drinkable, but probably better suited for warmer weather.

Check out Hoegaarden’s history on Wikipedia – it was very interesting!  Don’t have time?  OK, here’s the highlights:

• The village of Hoegaarden, Belgium, has been brewing beer since the Middle Ages.
• By 1955 all 13 breweries shut down.
• Ten years later a milkman named Pierre Celis starts a brewery in his hayloft, using the original Hoegaarden witbier recipe.
• Dude buys a former distillery to expand the brewing operation.
• Fire at the brewery in 1985, InBev loans Celis money to help rebuild brewery.
• Celis feels InBev pressured him to make the recipe more commercial; says “Screw it,” and sells the brewery to InBev.
• Celis moves to Austin TX, starts Celis Brewery, later sold it Miller.  Looks like Celis has a habit of selling out to “The Man.”
• 2005 – InBev plans to close the Hoegaarden Brewery in Belgium , move production to another bigger brewery.  Move never panned out because they couldn’t perfect the recipe in the new brewery.

 There, now you don’t have to read it!

By the way - I'm not sure if it shows up in the picture, but the neck of the bottle has a bulge halfway up - my guess is that is to catch the sediement that generally remains in an unfiltered beer as you slowly pour into your glass.

P.S.   Red, Hot & Blue had a broader selection of beers than I expected, with about 10 taps and 20 imports, micros and drafts in bottles.