![]() Light & sweet maltiness with possible grainy tartness Possible notes of honey or vanilla Yeast adds notes of pepper & spice Hoppiness will be low & balanced, with spicy or herbal qualities Citrusy fruitiness possible No vegetal characteristics in this style. Ranges from straw colored to pale yellow-gold Dense and creamy white head with excellent retention Clarity will be hazy and cloudy. The below details are a summary of what a Witbier should represent. The guidelines for the Belgian-Style Witbier are set by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Style Committee. Today, it continues to be a force in not only its home country, but has found new and fertile ground in America’s flourishing craft brewing scene. Not many styles owe their revival and renewal in popularity to a single man. A few years later, Christine Celis relaunched the family business, bringing back her fathers original witbier recipe along with the first brewmaster hired to brew it. From 2002 until its closing in 2012, Michigan Brewing Company had the rights to the Celis trademark, but when the company went under in 2012 the name and all its rights returned to the Celis family. This time it was Miller and after more disagreements - again largely about craft compromise in search of higher profits - he opted out and moved back to Belgium.Ī year later Miller shelved the Celis name in the wake of waning sales, due in large part to the very compromises Pierre fought against. But, again, he had the misfortune of falling in with big beer. It was a hit with the burgeoning craft beer crowd. With help from his daughter Christine, he opened the Celis Brewing Company in 1992 and began to brew Celis White. He settled in Austin, Texas, with plans for another brewery already simmering. Then in 1989 he packed up, and headed for America. Refusing to compromise his craft he sold the rest of the shares to Interbrew. Almost immediately, Celis ran into disagreements with those in charge about how his beer should be brewed. Three years later Stella merged with Piedboeuf and became Interbrew. The brewery was under-insured and in desperation he sold a piece of it to Stella Artois. When a fire destroyed the brewery in 1985, he found himself in a bit of a spot. In 1978, Celis moved his brewery to an abandoned soft drink facility and renamed it De Kluis (The Cloister). Riding the coattails of his unexpected success other brewer’s dug in attics and dusted off old witbier recipes. It found a willing and exuberant audience, an audience ready for a backward glance and rediscovery of styles left behind in the rural landscape of the country’s past. In 1965, Celis built a small brewery in his shed and after experimenting with various witbier recipes, released his first belgian wit to the public in 1966. A milk-man who dearly loved the local brew, he made it his self-prescribed mission to revive the witbier style to its former glory. That could have been the final gloomy note in witbier’s history, but for one man. In 1957, the last Hoegaarden brewery closed shop. Hit especially hard was the witbier style and the area around Hoegaarden. ![]() Through the late 1800s and into the 1900s, one by one Belgian brewers found no other alternative but to shut their doors. Though Belgium probably held out the longest, even they succumbed, no longer able to compete with the lighter, crystal-clear lagers. Lager brewing gained a foothold and slowly began to clamber across Europe. ![]() Many Belgian styles, witbier included, pay homage, even today, to a history abounding in the use of other herbs.įurther changes in the brewing landscape caused a shift in consumer popularity. As hops slowly choked out other bittering herbs, Belgian brewers made the transition reluctantly. ![]()
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