I love White Ales in the spring time. They taste like victory. Even though 2020 has been a weird year, I still wanted to brew one of my favorite styles. Because I have not been happy with the Belgian Wit yeast strains available commercially and I have more time on my hands, I decide to harvest yeast from a six pack of Hoegaarden and use it in my clone recipe of the famous brew. Watch me talk about the recipe and the process.

Hoegaarden White Clone Recipe

So I brewed a 5 gallon recipe but I will provide the recipe so you can configure it to your setup/needs.

Ingredients:

50% Belgian Pilsner Malt (I used 4.5 pounds/2 kg)
50% Flaked Wheat (I used 4.5 pounds/2 kg as well)
1 oz (27 grams) of Saaz hops 3.1 %AA – added with 60 minutes left to go in the boil
1 oz (27 grams) of Saaz hops 3.1 %AA – added with 15 minutes left to go in the boil
1 oz (27 grams) of Bitter Search Results Curaçao Orange Peel – added with 5 minutes left to go in the boil
.5 oz (14 grams) of crushed Coriander seeds – added with 5 minutes left to go in the boil

Instructions

For this recipe, I followed a step infusion mash process. It was the first time I’ve ever followed this procedure. I added 9 quarts or 8.6 liters of tap water that I treated with a Campden tablet at 130°F (54°C) to the entire grain bill, which brought the mash temp to 122°F (50°C) and held that temperature for 30 minutes.

Then, I added another 9 quarts or 8.6 liters of water that I heated to 160°F (71°C) to bring the mash temp up to 150°F (65.5°C) and held that for 60 minutes.

I sparged with enough hot water to collect 7 gallons of wort for a 75 minute boil.

Yeast Preparation

I took the dregs of 6 bottles of Hoegaarden and added it to a sanitized glass jug that was filled with a liter starter made with Fast Pitch canned wort. Since I am working from home nowadays, I was able to swirl it pretty regularly. After 3 days when the activity started to die down, I refrigerated the starter for 2 days. I removed the starter from the fridge and decanted. Once I had about an inch left, I poured in another can of the Fast Pitch canned wort and started the fermentation process again.

Two days later, I brewed my Hoegaarden clone and poured the entire starter into my fermentor (after it was chilled). My beer started to ferment in 12 hours and it smelled great.

This beer should be a good one – BREW ON!