Hoegaarden Speciale

And so we move onto the beers that i brough all the way from the magnificent antwerp itself. This is a beer iv wanted for ages, i just thought there was soemthign cool about it and it actually blows its younger mass produced brother out the water. Pours nice and a little darker orange than original. Aroma is clove and corriander with yeasty notes. Taste is very similar though less yeast, fuller than its wee bro and alot better for it. Glad to have had this and i dont think it would be a bad thing if they got this over in britian.

Muddy bright yellow, with a thin head. Yeast in the aroma, less coriander and citrus than the regular Hoegaarden. Full body, some sourness and acidness in the flavour.

(Bottled) Opaque golden-yellow color with a small, lasting head. Sweetish, crisp, very witbier-spicy aroma with lime. Slightly sour and acidic, crisp and wheaty flavor with coriander, lime and orange-peel clearly present. Light to medium-bodied, reasonably refreshing palate with balanced, a bit foamy carbonation. I’d say this beats the regular Hoegaarden, but should taste side-by-side to be sure. Anyway, a straightforward, but enjoyable, quality witbier.

I was disappointed by the head, it not looking much like any of the ad pourings that I’ve seen. The cloudy, pale yellow - almost white - body was quite well carbonated. The aroma is a tart orange (not the peel) with nuts, and maybe a bit of toffee-like malt. Drinking the beer was actually much like biting into a juicy, carbonated (?) orange slice. The corriander is present, but even overshadowed by the sweet malt tastes. Quite a decent quencher, making me wish it was more readily available in my area. If it was, I might end up rating it higher than the "regular" Hoegaarden.

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Bottle. Hazy yellow with a slim, but steady white head. Spicey and citrus aroma. Taste has citrus, banana, fresh yeast with a slightly sour then sweet finish. A thirst quenchingly decent witbier (a bit better than the normal stuff).

Bottled. Hazy yellow, big creamy head. Yeasty aroma, with fruity. Yeasty, bananaish and citric flavour. A bit better than the normal one.

(Bottle 25 cl) Paler yellow and less hazy than the original Hoegaarden. Decent, white head. Marginally stronger, but exactly as refreshing and excellent. Still the typical witbier-notes, but I reckon this has less wheat and more barley. 160696

a mes rate: this is more like what hoegaarden should be. im not a huge fan of white beers although it was hoegaarden that got me started. speciale is a good title for it. much better than the regular hoe. very very similar but a touch more spicy, much more creamy with a superior palate and just a little something special that i can quite put my finger on. maybe its the cream and vanilla finish that makes it. a touch watery though. i wish i had a standard version to judge this against. thanks to ang for the sample