Beer of the Moment Article - Riggers' Forbidden Fruit

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	Paul Rigby

Forbidden Fruit


History
My recent Beer of the Moment articles have focused on generic beer styles such as an ‘American Pale Ale’ which has only fairly general guidelines as to what that beer should be like in terms of flavour, colour and bitterness etc. In this case we are dealing with a quite specific beer, namely Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit, which has a specific flavour profile, colour, and bitterness etc which means that we are faced with a major problem in that any version attempted by the home brewer can and will immediately be compared to the original. Bear in mind that it is almost impossible to brew the same beer twice so it is doubly difficult to brew a clone of a commercial beer!
The Hoegaarden history is similar to so many Belgian and French abbey or trappist beers. In this case it began in the 1445 in the Flemish town of the same name in the wheat growing district of Brabant, east of Brussels, by monks (Naturally!) who by chance discovered this “new” white (wheat) beer style which enjoyed great popularity for many centuries. Ultimately two world wars and the emergence of the European mega-swill lager breweries saw the demise of the traditional white beer in 1957. In 1966 a Belgian milkman by the name of Pierre Celis together with some friends and family resurrected the style and opened a farmhouse brewery producing 350 hectolitres a year, this quickly grew to a peak of 75,000 hectolitres in 1985 when a fire destroyed the brewery. In order to rebuild a significant amount of financial help was required, enter Interbrew, a mega European conglomerate brewer with mega bucks (or Euros) to throw at the project. In 1987 Pierre Culis sold out and by 1997 Interbrew had driven production to 855,000 hectolitres, (that’s 855,000,000 litres or 300 Billion pots of Hoegaarden!), per annum!
In this case the history is probably irrelevant because there is little room for variation or innovation when trying to brew a specific beer, although having said that it is almost impossible for an amateur to accurately duplicate commercial beers. What is important at this stage is to know the characteristics of the beer in question. Forbidden Fruit is a deep copper red colour, 8.8% alcohol, white (wheat) abbey beer with a distinctly fruity and spicy aroma and palette and a distinct residual sweetness.

Enhanced Kit Version
Whilst Belgian abbey or trappist beers are very different they lend themselves very well to kit brewing and it is possible to make a reasonable approximation.
I suggest starting out by purchasing a good quality Amber or Nut Brown Ale kit. There are numerous choices of brands and the quality of the kits are generally excellent and the final decision is yours. Usually I suggest using malt extracts rather than all dextrose or sugar, however in this case I recommend using a mixture of both which is required to develop the distinctive flavour profile of this beer. Use 1.25kgs of light malt extract, plus 250gms of wheat malt extract, 250gms of CSR Golden Syrup and 250gms of coffee sugar crystals, the addition of these adjuncts will assist in pushing the alcohol level to the required range and will contribute the residual sweetness characteristic of this beer.
Now the hopping; - there isn’t any alteration required! An Ale kit will be well bitter enough (in fact it is over bitter really, but the addition of the sugars and extra malt extract and therefore increased alcohol levels together with the residual sweetness should counteract the bitterness).
In this particular style some additions will be required in the fermenter toward the end of fermentation to contribute the distinctive spicy fruity flavour required. I suggest adding 6gms of freshly crushed coriander seeds and the zest of half an orange.
Follow the usual kit method for the remainder of the brew.

Malt Extract & Mini Mash Version
Base Malt - 1.5kg Light Malt Extract (Preferably dry)
1.5kg Amber Malt extract
250gms Light Wheat Malt Extract
250gms CSR Golden Syrup
250gms Coffee Sugar Crystals
Mini mash grains - 600gms German Melanoidin Malt
400gms German Cara Dunkel (Dark Crystal Malt)

Put half a litre of cold water in a saucepan and add grains and heat up VERY SLOWLY (over a 25 to 30 minute period) until just short of boiling. Strain the liquid into a saucepan, discard the grain and boil the liquid for a minimum of 15 minutes.

Hops – Hops are almost a token in this stye, required only to prevent the beer from being cloyingly sweet. For bittering aim at around 20 IBU's using virtually any hops you may have lying around, I would use Styrian Goldings but it really isn’t important, quantity will vary depending on the %AA (alpha acid) of the hops selected. Grain & Grape staff will be happy to do the calculations for you. Hop flavour and aroma are not required for this style.
Total boil time should be 90 minutes with the bittering hops boiled for only 60 minutes.
Yeast - There is only one - Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit.

Full Grain Version
Grains - 3500gms German Pilsner Malt
1500gms German Melanoidin Malt
450gms German Cara Dunkel (Dark Crystal Malt)
400gms German Cara Helles (Light Crystal Malt)
150gms German Wheat Malt
Adjuncts - 450gms Clear Belgian Candi Sugar
450gms Amber Belgian Candi Sugar
450gms CSR Golden Syrup
Mashing regimes are many and varied. Most modern malts are very well modified and only need a simple single step infusion mash to obtain very good results, with this in mind a simple mash regime is quite adequate for this style – a single step at 66ºC and mash out at 77ºC. Personally I prefer a more complex mashing regime because I am able to gain more control over the balance of the final brew with respect to mouthfeel etc. My current regime is based on my own experience and experimentation and the recommendations of George Fix in his book Analysis of Brewing Techniques. In this case an acid rest at 40ºC for 15 mins, 1st saccrification rest at 60ºC for 40 mins, 2nd saccrification rest at 70ºC for 20 mins and a mash out at 77ºC for 10 mins.
Hops - Hops are almost a token in this stye, required only to prevent the beer from being cloyingly sweet. For bittering aim at around 20 IBU's using virtually any hops you may have lying around, I would use Styrian Goldings but it really isn’t important. Bittering hops should only be boiled for a maximum of 60 mins
Spices and fruit flavours are characteristic of this beer and in order to achieve that I suggest the addition of the zest of one Seville orange (a sour variety used for making marmalade often available at markets) added to the boil for the last 15 minutes and 15gms of freshly crushed coriander seeds for the last 5 mins of the boil.
Total boil time should be 90 minutes
Yeast - There is only one - Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit.