Beer · Style · Short entry

Witbier

Witbier is a cloudy Belgian wheat ale spiced with coriander and orange peel. It died out in 1957 and was revived in Hoegaarden by Pierre Celis in 1966.

Location: Hoegaarden, Flemish Brabant, Belgium

Character

Pale, hazy, light-bodied and refreshing, with spice and citrus.

Contested

Monks are traditionally credited with creating white beer centuries ago. Brewing guides note that modern witbiers descend from Celis's 1966 recreation, not directly from the older beers.

Death and revival

White beer was long a speciality of Hoegaarden, a small town east of Brussels. As lager took over, the town's last white-beer brewery, Tomsin, closed in 1957. Pierre Celis, a local milkman who had worked there part time, set up his own brewery in 1966 and began making a white beer named after the town. After a fire in 1985, Interbrew (now AB InBev) financed the rebuilding and bought the business in 1990. The style then spread widely; brewing guides note that today's witbiers trace back to Celis's recreation rather than to the beers of past centuries.

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How it connects

Region

produced-in Belgium