Hoegaarden Brewery

Lore & Background

The village of Hoegaarden had been known for its witbieren since the Middle Ages. In the nineteenth century, the village had thirteen breweries and nine distilleries; however, in 1957, the last local wheat beer brewery, Tomsin, closed. Pierre Celis, a milkman who had grown up next to the brewery and sometimes helped with brewing, decided ten years later, in 1967, to try to revive the style. He started a new brewery, called de Kluis, in his hay loft, using traditional ingredients of water, yeast, wheat, hops, coriander, and dried Curaçao orange peel known as Laraha. In the 1980s, with demand growing, Celis bought Hougardia, a former lemonade factory, to expand operations. After a fire in 1985, several brewers offered help, including Interbrew, the largest brewer in the country. Interbrew lent money for the purchase of other buildings to rebuild the brewery. Over time, Celis felt that the company used the loan to pressure him to change the recipe for broader appeal. Celis decided instead to sell them the brewery, and with the proceeds moved to the United States, where he set up the Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas, to continue making wheat beer to what he described as the original Hoegaarden recipe. It was later acquired by Miller Brewing. Miller ultimately closed the brewery and sold the equipment and brand names to Michigan Brewing Company. The wheat beer Celis brewed in Texas, which he described as the original Hoegaarden recipe, was at the same time brewed in Belgium, first by Brouwerij De Smedt and then later by Brouwerij van Steenberge. This beer, Celis White, is still being brewed in Belgium by Brouwerij van Steenberge, and was brewed in the U.S. by Michigan Brewing Company, which went bankrupt and sold the name. In November 2005, InBev announced the closure of the brewery in Hoegaarden, with production moving to Jupille. The closure sparked protests from locals upset at the loss of the town's largest employer. The move was never completed; on September 10, 2007, InBev decided to keep production in Hoegaarden and invest part of a 60 million Euro budget to upgrade the facilities.

Reader's Guide

Hoegaarden's significance lies in its revival of a medieval brewing tradition that had nearly disappeared. Pierre Celis's decision to restart witbier production in his hay loft in 1967 preserved a style that might otherwise have been lost. The brewery's history reflects tensions between artisanal brewing and corporate consolidation, as Celis felt pressured to alter his recipe after accepting a loan from Interbrew, leading him to sell and start anew in Texas. The beer's continued production in both Belgium and the United States, under different owners, illustrates the enduring appeal of the style. The threatened closure of the original brewery in 2005 and its eventual reprieve highlight the cultural and economic importance of the brand to its hometown. Hoegaarden's unfiltered, spiced wheat beer remains a widely recognized example of the witbier style, served with a slice of orange or lemon in many bars.

Did You Know?

• Hoegaarden is unfiltered, giving it a hazy, milky appearance that makes it a wit (white) beer.
• Pierre Celis was a milkman who started brewing in his hay loft in 1967.
• The beer is spiced with coriander and dried Curaçao orange peel known as Laraha.
• In 2007, InBev decided to keep production in Hoegaarden after brewers in Jupille were unsatisfied with local production.