Homebrew on the left. Hoegaarden on the right.

I don't drink much witbier but had been wanting to make this beer for a while. I had watched Brew Dudes videos about culturing Hoegaarden dregs. And I watched BeernBBQByLarry's videos about making what he calls Largaarden. 

I knew from Brew Dudes that Hoegaarden yeast is viable and I was inspired by Larry's recipe. So in June I bought a six pack of Hoegaarden and made a starter. It was really easy. I just saved dregs from two bottles and added them to a jar with some store-bought bottled water and sugar. I did the same thing the next day. The yeast took off quickly. Over the next few days I built it up with malt extract. 

I used most of Larry's grain bill and spice recipe, except I used only wheat (flaked, white and red) instead of wheat and oats. The homebrew shop only had 3/4 oz of bitter orange peel. I went with that because I didn't have a source for more without ordering it. I also had gone to two stores in search of whole coriander seeds but only found crushed. I used a Walmart brand pre-crushed coriander and only used 1/2 oz of it because I was concerned that more would give me hot dog flavors. I also used 3 bags of chamomile tea per the recipe. It has Tettnanger hops for bittering. ​

Brewing and fermentation went smoothly. I had never used rice hulls before but figured it would be wise to do so since this recipe has so many flaked grains. I had no issues with lautering. 

This beer turned out great. The dominant flavor is coriander but it is otherwise balanced between malt sweetness, yeast flavors, and spices. The witbier yeast flavors are kind of a background to the spices. I don't think I can specifically pick out the chamomile or orange flavors. It is a very refreshing beer to drink on a hot day. 

Comparing mine to Hoegaarden, mine is hazier and spicier (from added spices, not yeast). It seems to have less ester flavor (clove, spice) than actual Hoegaarden. Perhaps it is hidden by the spices. Hoegaarden has a very prominent yeasty, clove flavor. If I brew this again I will reduce the amount of spice adjuncts to allow the yeast character to shine through. 

I hadn't brewed a Belgian beer in years. This brought me back to 2014 when I was first learning to homebrew. I similarly built up dregs from a bottle of Deschutes Chainbreaker, an IPA with witbier yeast. These yeast experiments are fun and keep homebrewing interesting. 

Recipe for 5 gallons:

4.5 lbs Pilsner

4.5 lbs flaked wheat

1.5 oz Tettnanger hops (2.3 AA) at 60 minutes

Last five minutes of boil:

1/2 oz pre-crushed coriander

3/4 oz bitter orange peel

3 chamomile tea bags

Yeast from Hoegaarden bottles

February 2026 IPA

Boring beer name but there was nothing special about this beer. I don't remember how I came up with it other than I had a lot of Centennial hops and some other things and 1099 yeast. After I buy yeast I tend to repitch the yeast cake on to new beers and I imagine I had the keg space, time, and ingredients.

For some reason this beer has just never really done it for me. Maybe too sweet. Too much centennial flavor. No off flavors. Nothing wrong with it. Has never cleared.

11 lbs pale 2 row

.25 lbs crystal 20

1 oz centennial 20 minutes

1 oz Citra 10 minutes 

1 oz galaxy 5 minutes 

1 oz x17701 0 minutes 

1 oz centennial dry hop in keg

1099 whitbread yeast (because that's what I had been using). 

Honey blonde ale - 2025

I went to Los Angeles in 2024 and tried Pizza Port Brewing's California honey blonde ale. I don't remember too much about it, unfortunately, but I did enjoy it. Inspired, I came up with this recipe, based on details provided on their web site. This is a good beer, but it's hazy, whereas the actual beer is pretty clear. I think the wheat in mine accounts for the haze. Also, I think the real beer is a little more malty than mine. Mine has a little too much hop flavor, so I would cut back the Hallertau Blanc hops to 1 oz.

Recipe for 5 gallons:

6.25 lb pale 2 row

1.2 lb honey

.25 lb red wheat

.25 crystal 20

1 oz Mt. Hood hops (5.2 AA) at 45 minutes

2 oz Hallertau Blanc (8.7 AA) at 2 minutes

Omega Kolsch II yeast

Nelson Simcoe pale ale - 2024

In recent years I mainly want to drink a balanced beer. Beers that aren't too dry, too malty, too bitter, too hoppy, or too sweet. The way to achieve that for me has been about 5% abv beers with a low to moderate amount of hops and moderate bitterness. This was just another one of those types of beers. And also allowed me to use up some ingredients. A good beer.

5 gallon recipe:

5 lbs pale 2 row

1.5 lbs German Pilsner 

1.5 German pale ale

8 oz crystal 60

1 oz Simcoe at 10 minutes 

1 oz Nelson Sauvin at 5 minutes 

1469 West Yorkshire 

Innkeeper - 2024

I've never had Timothy Taylor's Landlord, but reportedly Northern Brewer's Innkeeper kit is a good approximation. A lot of the ingredients for Landlord are available online, though I never found anything definitive when I brewed this beer in 2024. Subsequently I learned that the beer is all golden promise malt (Simpsons, I believe) and maybe 5-6% sugar. The craft beer channel on YouTube has a good video with lots of information. I went with northern brewer's recipe. I didn't love this beer for some reason. Maybe it was a little oxidized? I had a leaky keg (co2) that I was constantly topping off with more co2 because there was none to even push out beer, so maybe some air got in there. This beer seemed much lighter than the actual beer. I used Thomas Fawcett golden promise. For my recently brewed second attempt I used Simpsons. 

5 gallon recipe:

6 lbs golden promise 

1 lb corn sugar 

4 oz crystal 60

1 oz Fuggles (5.6 AA) at 30 minutes 

1 oz EKG (5.6 AA) at 20 minutes 

1 oz Styrian Goldings / Celeia (3.9 AA) at 5 minutes

1469 yeast

Homegrown hop ale 2025

I was sort of going for an amber ale but I think it's a little too hoppy for the style. 

860 grams of various types of hops - centennial, nugget, Columbus - divided into four 215 gram additions. 

7 lbs Pilsner malt 

2 lbs very old un-milled pale malt (first beer using my new mill!)

2 oz chocolate 

4 oz crystal 20

8 oz crystal 60

Omega kolsch II yeast. Because I had been using it all summer and, why not?

I mainly taste green pepper in this beer. It reminds me of the 2018 Sam Adams coffee pale ale. It's not unpleasant but not really what I was going for. It might just be a feature of my hops because I feel like I recognize that flavor from prior homegrown hop beers. For that reason I don't think it's the roast/chocolate flavor from the small amount of chocolate malt in the recipe. 

Honkers Ale clone

Honkers ale was one of my first craft beers. I don't think I really loved it when I was first drinking it back in the late 2000s, but I think that's because I didn't really appreciate it and hadn't developed the taste for that style of beer. Unfortunately, it left the market around 2017 so when I attempted to brew this again, all I had to go on was memory. I watched a YouTube video from the brewery and looked at an archived page listing the ingredients, but didn't have a lot else to work with in developing a recipe. I was under the impression the beer was on the maltier, rather than hoppy, side. So when the beer returned in 2024, at least in a few markets, and I was able to buy and taste some, I was sort of surprised. It wasn't how I remembered the actual beer tasting. But surely the brewers at Goose Island know what they're doing, and it's just my faulty memory. Or maybe their recipe changed. Actually, it appears to have changed at some point, as the current site lists Pilgrim as one of the hops. Either way, my beer was good, and so is theirs, and I'm happy that this beer has returned. 

Recipe (Brewed May 2024 and consumed before I bought the re-launched version in October 2024):

6.75 lbs pale 2 row

4 oz crystal 20

2 oz roasted barley

4 oz white wheat

1 oz Styrian Goldings (3.7 AA) at 60 minutes

1 oz Styrian Goldings at 30 minutes 

Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire

SS Minnow Mild

Second beer of the year, pitched on the 1469 yeast cake from the English bitter. This is a re-brew of the Northern Brewer SS Minnow mild kit, which I first made two years ago. Different yeast, 1469 instead of Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell. Also different hops. EKG instead of Willamette. This was a tasty, easy-drinking beer. These low alcohol malty beers just don't get enough love. They have so much flavor packed into a fairly small package, alcohol-wise. 

2024 English bitter

First beer of the year. An English bitter sounded good, something along the lines of a beer I made back in 2017. I reused most of the recipe but decreased the hops to keep it malty. I ordered Wyeast West Yorkshire yeast (1469) for this beer, since I like this yeast but can't buy it locally anymore. This was a tasty beer that went fast. It was a good beer to kick off the brewing season, and Spring. 

Recipe for 5 gallons:

8 lbs 2 row

.75 lb Crystal 80

.5 Crystal 60

1 oz Fuggles (5.6 AA) at 60 minutes

.5 oz EKG (5.6 AA) at 30 minutes

.5 oz EKG (5.6 AA) at 15 minutes

2023 German Pilsner

Brewed 10/27/23. Took the afternoon off to make it. Started before 1 and finished by 4:30, aside from some cleaning. Maybe record time for me. Final beer of the year. 

OG 1.042-43. Brew software estimated 1.048. I used floor malted Bohemian Pilsner which I think I’ve read can lead to lower extract yield. 

Kegged 11/6/23. FG 1.012. 

I don’t remember much about this beer. It was good, but not so good that it was memorable. It cleared well with whirlfloc only and no gelatin. 

8.5 floor malted pils. 

1 oz of Halletau Mittelfruh (2.9 AA) at 60, 30, and 5 minutes. 

6 grams gypsum in sparge water. Otherwise no water modifications. 

Omega Oktoberfest yeast. 

2023 festbier

Festbier has become one of my favorite beer styles in recent years and I generally prefer it over the Marzen beers, which are more common, though I still hold special regard for Sam Adams Octoberfest. This was the second beer brewed with the Omega Oktoberfest yeast. Based on a recipe I came up with in 2020, it was good but was a little harsh. I am not sure what to attribute the harshness to, so I feel somewhat cautious about rebrewing it, but maybe it came down to something in my brewing process that day or maybe the hops had a higher AA than I was told. I had used very old Galena hops to add some bitterness, and there was a slight harshness even before pitching yeast. 

Recipe:

8.5 lbs Weyermann Pils

1 lb Munich light

.25 lb Melanoidin

1 oz Tettnanger (2.2 AA) 60 minutes

.2 oz Galena (16 AA) 60 minutes

1 oz Tettnanger (2.2 AA) 20 minutes

1.055 OG

27.85 IBU

Actual FG 1.012