Hoegaarden Serving Tip

I love a lot of different beers.  Mostly Ales, but I enjoy a tasty Stout, Pilsner, or Lager as well as a few others.  But one beer I *never* tire of is Hoegaarden.  Never.  I can drink it in the hazy, hot, and humid days of Summer, as well as the crisp, dry, cold nights of Winter.  It’s a unique Ale of the Heffeweizen variety, but unfiltered, so it’s cloudy.  But the difference is not only the cloudy pale amber color, it’s the blend of spices and natural stabilization.

The bottle label has a simple 3-step picture-guide on how to serve it best:  Pour 2/3 bottle into a cold glass.  Shake the remainder in the bottle.  Pour the remainder in to make the head form.

Hoegaarden rates an average 3.91 (B+) on BeerAdvocate.com

Hoegaarden began in 1445 (based on their label and web site history) but actually, as a brand, went dormant for many years.  In 1987, the brewery management was taken over by Interbrew (now called Anheuser-Busch InBev).  Thankfully, ABI hasn’t tried to re-define the product into some watered-down tasteless crap that they sell to most Americans.

Here’s my tip.  Using an iced full-size beer glass: Pour 1/2 the bottle in vigorously.  Stir the remainder vigorously, and pour it in fast.  This forms a better head and also stirs the spices more evenly (they settle at the bottom usually).  Also, from time to time, I will swirl the glass to blend the spices again.  You can see them swimming in the brew from the side of the glass.  Mmmmm.  I’m on my second glass right now.  Cheers!