Beer: Le Faison (Biére Blanche/Witbier)

Le Faison (The Pheasant)

Welcome to another edition of “Belgian beers just don’t want to be fenced into your silly style guidelines”. Commonly known by its Flemish (Dutch) name, Witbier, the Belgian wheat beer is as hard to pin down as our friend the Saison. Originating in the eastern part of Brabant and dating back to the 14th century, Witbiers were known for having exotic spices and fruits which they had access to by virtue of Dutch trading routes. The region’s fertile soil combined with this access to global flavors and the result was the witbier. For centuries, it was a coveted product.

In the 20th century, however, commodity brewing, primarily lagers being brewed in the area around Leuven (in particular Stella Artois), drove the witbier into extinction. A 40 year old milkman named Pierre Celis was sitting around drinking with his buddies lamenting the demise of the local brewing industry and he decided that he was going to make a batch of witbier. Celis had worked at the local brewery as a kid and still remembered the recipe. It was a hit and he opened a brewery in a stable next to his house. Soon he had to expand and grew into an abandoned lemonade plant.

The beer he created is Hoegaarden, the modern standard for witbiers. Still a delicious beer being produced today, it is based on a mostly wheat grain bill, lightly hopped, and flavored with coriander and dried curaçao orange peel. Hoegaarden was originally brewed by Pierre Celis who started his brewery with a loan from his dad after years of home brewing. In 1985, there was a fire at the brewery and because he had plowed all of his profits into the brewer and was under insured, Pierre was forced to sell the company to Interbrew (which eventually became AB Inbev) which produces Stella Artois. So, ironically, the company that arguably killed off the witbier producers now produces the worlds most famous witbier.

Pierre emigrated to Austin, Texas where he started a new brewery in 1992 and started brewing a witbier called Celis White which was a spectacularly good beer. The legend says that he used yeast from his old brewery that he smuggled into the country in his socks. This makes him one of the fathers of the American craft brewing industry in addition to a renowned Belgian brewer. Eventually, he sold the business to Miller who then sold it to Michigan Brewing produced Celis beers for some years but eventually went bankrupt. Pierre returned to Belgium and was producing several beers for the world famous St. Bernardus brewery. Cancer took Pierre in 2011 but his daughter revived the Celis brand at a new facility in Texas in 2017.

Our wit hews to the basic intent but we add a little modern twist. In addition to the standard noble hops and coriander that would be traditional, we add a newer American hop that gives a ton of orange flavor. Witbiers are usually paired with slightly acidic foods including citrus forward salads, goat cheese, and pickled fare. They also go really well with a table in the shade on a warm sunny day.