White
beer is usually brewed from equal quantities of
pale malted barley and raw wheat, sometimes with the addition of oats.
It is spiced with coriander seeds and
dried Curaçao orange peels.
Interrestingly enough, the citrus character of Belgium's white beer
owes more to the
coriander than to the addition of orange peel |
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White
beer, or witbier, is a
traditional style of wheat beer that was produced since the 14th
century in the Leuven region, South-East of Brussels. From the
many breweries that still produced white beer in the beginning of XXth
century, all closed one after the other, the last one in 1955. The
style was
revived 10 years after by a passionate and highly competent beer-lover,
Pierre Celis, in the small town of Hoegaarden that gives its
name
to
the best-known beer in this category.
White beers are often
unfiltered, hence the cloudy appearance that gives its name to this
type of beer, and they are generally refermented in the bottle.
Its
highly refreshing, effervescent character, with a fresh herbal and
spice taste, unmalted wheat flavour and
a slight lactic acidity, makes white beer a summertime favorite in
Belgium.
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