Fancy Some Who Garden (Hoegaarden White)

Member Name: vinodgm

Product:	Hoegaarden White
Date:	19/05/02 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unique taste, Very easy to drink, Refreshing

Disadvantages: Expensive, Some may be put off by the cloudy appearance

Well that's the way it's pronounced - (Who) (Garden) so I have a point even though the title makes little sense.

On the several occasions that I have written my opinions on other brands of beers and spirits I always noticed that Hoegaarden White Beer was listed as the top rated brand of beer on Ciao.

My inquisitivness finally got the better of me and I decided to finally try this beer out for myself and find out what all the hype was about and why this beer was being praised so lavishly.

I picked up some from Tesco's this afternoon and here's by appraisal and report.

The History of Hoegaarden White
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This beer is produced in Belgium and refers to wheat beers and especially those presented with sediment. Hoegaarden is a region in Belgium that is rich in soil and castle farms and is a famous area for growing of wheat and sugar beet. Way back in 1700 the region boasted of 30 breweries and became a major brewing center that supplied many neighbouring European communities.

In the early 1960's one Pieter Celis, who was a milkman and born in the village, decided to revive the white beer brewing tradition and it was in this way that Hoegaarden beer was revived and available for all and sundry today.

The original brewer of this beer was Brouwerij De Kluis and this takes it's name from the Dutch word "hermitage", which was originally a monastic brew. The brewery has now been taken over by Interbrew in Belgium and is distributed by Whitebread in the U.K.

How Is It Made
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Hoegaarden White beer is brewed with mineral rich spring water, unmalted wheat, barley malts, yeast and spices such as coriander and dried orange peel.

This beer is double fermented. First it is naturally fermented (top fermented) in vat's and then ferments again whilst in the packaged bottle or keg. In this way each vessel becomes like
a "micro brewery".

Curacao orange zest is also used in the brewing process in order to give it that extra fruity flavour.

Appearance
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This is a naturally cloudy beer. This happens because Hoegaarden is non-filtered and, as mentioned earlier, undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Also it's high wheat content add's to it's cloudy appearance.

Many people associate a cloudy beer with one that might be off but this is what is unique about Hoegaarden.

It's colour is a distinctively hazy-yellow one and it has a dense (thick) and rich head.

Taste
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Now this is the fun part. Hoegaarden has the most unique taste that I have every experienced in a beer.

This tastes sweet and sour at the same time. It is slightly spicy and you certainly get the taste of corriander and cinnamon. As for the orange well it certainly taste's fruity but although it does contain orange it tastes more like apples and other citrus fruits. The aftertaste is creamy and very slightly on the bitter side.

One great thing about this beer is that you hardly get any of that hoppy taste. It's just so smooth and creamy.

Price & Availability
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Hoegaarden White beer is available freely in the U.K. and at most major shops including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Safeway. This is due to the link up with Whitebread.

They come in 75cl bottles and 33cl bottles. The 75cl. ones go for £2.74 individually and the 33cl. ones go for £4.89 for a pack of 4 bottles.

They are certainly expensive but what else tastes that this that you could compare prices with. Further they only come in bottles because, as mentioned earlier, the second fermenation process is done whilst they are still in the bottles. So dont try looking out for the canned type.

My Appraisal
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Well what do I say. I love this b
eer. But should it be called a beer. I really can't imagine all those die hard bitter's drinkers having this as their daily tipple.

This is an extremely drinkable beer and is what is referred to as a "session beer". It is extremely refreshing and very mild on the palate. I suppose you could compare it in some ways ever so slightly to shandy.

When pouring it into the glass you should never let that cloudy appearance put you off. The stuff is delicious and I am sure that even those that do not really like beer or maybe have beer as an occasional drink would love this.

It just has to be served really nice and cold. If it's only slightly cold or room temperature it will certainly affect the drinking pleasure drastically.

The alcoholic content is 5% vol. but certainly does'nt feel like that whilst drinking it. It is therefore very misleading and before you know it your probably feeling a bit tipsy.

Hoegaarden is also available in other varieties other than the White. These are the Hoegaarden Speciale which is a little stronger at 5.6% vol and brewed only during the months of September and February. Then you have the Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit, which contains a whopping 9% vol. This is a claret coloured speciality beer. Finally you have the Hoegaarden Grand Cru, which has a peachy colour and a sweet and hoppy taste. The alcoholic content again is a grand 8.7% vol.

I for one will surely want to try out the Forbidden Fruit and the Grand Cru. I'm just wondering what's going to happen with all that alcohol.

Summary: