Hoegaarden Grand Cru

Brewed by Brouwerij Hoegaarden (InBev)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Hoegaarden, Belgium

Very suprised here, iv had it before and didnt rate it. Aroma starts citruis with yeast but as it warms it gets spicier and more complex. Flavour is similar to aroma, but for me its the mouthfeel here that makes this to great, it feels quite a mouthful with whats going on and carbonated to on excellent level, defo one to get again as they’ve started selling it in the tesco across the road from me, hehe. Re-rating - Increabable balance, banace aswell as orange cutting through the yeasty goodness here, alround no alcohol at all.

Bottle. Hazy gold with lots of coriander and yeasty nose, not bad, it has some complexity and sourness

Poured a medium and cloudy golden color with a smaller sized white head. Some small particles. Aromas and tastes of yeast, bananas, bubble gum and spices. Medium sweet. Thinner body.

Pours a thick yellow with a small white head and small floaties. Aroma of sour apple and bannana. Sour in the taste. I didn’t think it was that much better or different than the Hoegaarden Wit. Thanks to Hopdog for this one.

hazy golden beer. aroma: spicy, citrus, cookie dough. taste: spices(koriander), citrus, malt. finish is alcohol warming, long and fruity with hints of bubble gum. full bodied. so this was Pierre Celis’s top creation, i like "celisette" better nowadays. nice one, but a little bland.

This golden brown ale poured with a huge white head, difficult to contain even in a tulip glass. The aroma is spicy and so is the flavor, which tastes of malt, coriander and nuts with a fruity finish. This is a nice drink for any kind of weather.

Expected more from this one after a short forum on the use of words on the labels of Belgian beers. Grand Cru (top ranking) should have stood for the best of the Hoegaarden beers, yet this came a long second to the Verboden Vrucht which seems to be more mainstream than this one. Poured from the bottle into a tall tulip at the Westende Belgian Beer Café, Perth. (Cool, not cold) Pours an opaque golden-straw with a big fluffy white head. A high amount of small carbonation kept the head in it’s place and left some legs. Low nutty and candi sugar nose with a little spice. Lacked depth, as did the beer itself. Watery in the mouth, grapefruits and honeydew flavours come up first and lapsed into a grainy and husky mix of malt, mandarins and orange peels, quite dry in the mid-palate that finished, with it’s highlight, of a malty, medium length swallow. Light on overall in flavour and cleverly belying on its ABV, it wasn’t that bad a brew. Good summer quencher and easily more drinkable than their Wit.

Tasted this at the temperature recommended on the bottle, hence the aroma seemed quite weak. Very minimal head and virtually no lacing. The flavour makes up for some of what was lacking in the aroma, with a full body and pleasing aftertaste (hints of a red wine, perhaps merlot?). I’ll have to try this again at a more apt temperature. Re-rate: A lot more aroma at higher temp. Some toffee and belgian yeast. Much more like a Belgian strong than a white.