Hoegaarden Brewery is a brewery in Hoegaarden, Belgium, and the producer of a witbier, which is different from a wheat beer. Hoegaarden de-emphasizes hops, and is unfiltered, giving it the hazy, or milky, appearance--which makes it a wit (white) beer.
History
The village of Hoegaarden had been known for its witbieren (white beers) since the Middle Ages. In the nineteenth century, the village had thirteen breweries and nine distilleries;[1] however, in 1957, the last local wheat beer brewery, Tomsin, closed its doors.[2] 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.[3][4] Celis used the traditional ingredients of water, yeast, wheat,