HOEGAARDEN GRAND CRU
Origin: Belgium
Type: White beer (witbier)
Color: Amber
Alcohol content: 8.5%
Recommended serving temperature: 10ºC/50ºF
Brewery: Anheuser-Busch In Bev
Another one of my traditional favorites, this post on the Hoegaarden Grand Cru has been long overdue.
This beer is a weird and interesting one.
Hoegaarden themselves call this beer a "Witbier", but visually it does not look it at all. The color itself is far from the clearer one associated with witbiers (literally, white beer), as it is closer to an amber-ocher tonality than the pale straw yellow usual for this type of beer. It is quite hazy though and has a not unnoticeable amount of sediment, making it very hard to see through it, like it is to see through witbiers.
The amount of foam that builds when you pour it is also moderate and disappears in a reasonably brief period of time. It has a white-beige color and a soft creaminess to it, but with a little more sparkle to it than most other witbiers.
Regarding smell, the Hoegaarden Grand Cru has a citric orange smell, which helps to mask the alcohol in it, and a hint of spices (coriander seeds according to the webpage), making it very appealing. These citric orange and spices carry through the smell into the taste, however adding malt and alcohol to the equation. This malt and alcohol taste is not really typical of witbiers but more so of the strong belgian pale ales.
Furthermore, the ABV in the Hoegaarden Grand Cru, of 8.5%, is also less typical of witbiers, which range around 4% ABV, and more of more heavily fermented beers like the strong belgian pale ales.
The end result is thus an original beer which seems halfway between a weird strong witbier, and an original and hazy strong belgian pale ale.
It all makes for a full bodied beer which to me, came to be the epytomy of elegance and good taste and synonimous of serious shit. In fact, it was so much so that, a few years ago, every time anyone of me or my friends would order it, the rest of us would take out the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Time, the New Yorker or whatever in that vain we could get our hands on in the pub (once, a Marie Claire from one of our girlfriends), and handed it to whomever had ordered it, together with a pair of glasses, just to depict the seriousness and elegance which the drinker had, making it worthy of such a beer.
Suffice it to say that the seriousness in us would fade away after a few seconds and the elegance, after about an hour, tops (and I am flattering myself), while it remained in the beer until the end.
Now, while this no doubt paints a terrible picture when you imagine us trying to feign elegance and seriousness while barely able to hold the glass, it should not be held against the beer. This beer deserves a lot of my praise and also your tasting.
This beer is a weird and interesting one.
Hoegaarden themselves call this beer a "Witbier", but visually it does not look it at all. The color itself is far from the clearer one associated with witbiers (literally, white beer), as it is closer to an amber-ocher tonality than the pale straw yellow usual for this type of beer. It is quite hazy though and has a not unnoticeable amount of sediment, making it very hard to see through it, like it is to see through witbiers.
The amount of foam that builds when you pour it is also moderate and disappears in a reasonably brief period of time. It has a white-beige color and a soft creaminess to it, but with a little more sparkle to it than most other witbiers.
Regarding smell, the Hoegaarden Grand Cru has a citric orange smell, which helps to mask the alcohol in it, and a hint of spices (coriander seeds according to the webpage), making it very appealing. These citric orange and spices carry through the smell into the taste, however adding malt and alcohol to the equation. This malt and alcohol taste is not really typical of witbiers but more so of the strong belgian pale ales.
Furthermore, the ABV in the Hoegaarden Grand Cru, of 8.5%, is also less typical of witbiers, which range around 4% ABV, and more of more heavily fermented beers like the strong belgian pale ales.
The end result is thus an original beer which seems halfway between a weird strong witbier, and an original and hazy strong belgian pale ale.
It all makes for a full bodied beer which to me, came to be the epytomy of elegance and good taste and synonimous of serious shit. In fact, it was so much so that, a few years ago, every time anyone of me or my friends would order it, the rest of us would take out the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Time, the New Yorker or whatever in that vain we could get our hands on in the pub (once, a Marie Claire from one of our girlfriends), and handed it to whomever had ordered it, together with a pair of glasses, just to depict the seriousness and elegance which the drinker had, making it worthy of such a beer.
Suffice it to say that the seriousness in us would fade away after a few seconds and the elegance, after about an hour, tops (and I am flattering myself), while it remained in the beer until the end.
Now, while this no doubt paints a terrible picture when you imagine us trying to feign elegance and seriousness while barely able to hold the glass, it should not be held against the beer. This beer deserves a lot of my praise and also your tasting.
Comments
Post a Comment