WindRiver Brewing Internet Newsletter
Weizen: The Untold StoryAs the cold temperatures of winter gradually give way to the warm breezes and sunny days of summer, a young brewer's thoughts turn to the traditional beer of this magical time of year: weizen or wheat beer. For those unfamiliar with wheat beer, they normally have a cloudy appearance and a fruity, somewhat citric, and often spicy nose backed with a firm body and sweet, malty flavor. In Germany, they are the summer beverage, often consumed as part of breakfast! These brews, currently enjoying a renewal of interest, particularly amongst those in their 20s and 30s, have a long tradition. Wheat beer actually traces its origins back to about 400 years before the demise of the Babylonian empire (probably due to the fact that wheat was one of the first cultivated grains, along with barley). This knowledge of processing and using barley and wheat to make alcoholic beverages was transferred to the Europeans, and we can find records of the commercial production of wheat beer as early as the fifteenth century. By the seventeenth century, Maximilian I had taken over commercial production of wheat or weissbier (in German weiss means white, wheat beer was termed weissbier (or "white beer") because of its relatively pale appearance relative to the other brown beers commonly found at the time). At the same time, weizen was enjoying an increase in popularity. The upper classes began consuming it for its more refreshing character and its spritzy carbonation. Once the nobility began enjoying weissbier, the middle and lower classes also began acquiring a taste for this brew. And if this was not enough to create a popular demand for this beer, the governing body of the house of Dukes forced all taverns that were selling brownbier to also sell weissbier, or else face the forfeiture of their license to serve. Despite this early popularity, by 1800, the Dukes had sold or leased all of their weissbier breweries. In fact, many of the breweries that they leased were now producing brownbier, which had become increasingly popular as its producers (many of which were monasteries) began refining their methods. If it were not Georg Schneider, who leased one of the old weissbier breweries in the middle 1850s, the style very well may have become defunct. In 1872, Schneider cleverly traded the space in his brewery (which was needed for the production of brownbier) for the rights to produce weissbier, which was still in the hands of the Dukes. In 1872 they agrees and weissbier was now allowed to be produced by Schneider and the general public. In the same year, he bought a Munich brewery and began producing weizen. Since then, wheat beer has managed to survive the increasing popularity of pilsners, World War II and host of other vicissitudes and currently enjoys surging popularity. There are currently over 200 breweries producing wheat beer in Germany and Austria, not to mention the rest of Europe and North America! Wheat beer comes in many shades and flavors, making difficult to know what your getting sometimes, when you ask for a "wheat beer". American wheat beers generally come in two styles, a filtered form usually sold as "wheat beer", or an unfiltered, cloudy wheat sold as "Hefe-Weizen" (Hefe means "with yeast", thus accounting for its cloudy appearance). Recently, some microbreweries have begun making a more authentic German style weizen, which is cloudy and has a very fruity (often banana and clove) aroma and flavor. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to know what type of wheat beer you will be getting when you order an American-made version. German wheat beer is much more uniform. Hefe-Weizen, will always be cloudy in appearance, and will have some fruity notes of vanilla, banana, marshmallow and clove to varying degrees. I have found Paulaner and Hacker Pschorr to be the more intensely flavored and Ayinger and Schneider to be more mild. Just about all of the German examples have a much stiffer body and maltier aroma and flavor (and a bit more alcohol too!) The alcohol has unfortunately prevented some restrictive states from carrying these excellent products. Krystal weizen is the same as hefeweizen, only it has been filtered so that it has a crystal clear appearance. The filtering process gives the krystal weizen a cleaner flavor, more reminiscent of a light lager. If you are in Minnesota, Schell's brewing in New Ulm makes and outstanding krystal weizen which they simply call Weizen.
KIT SPECIAL: WALLEYE WEIZEN. DUNKEL WEIZEN AND RASPBERRY HARVEST WHEAT BEERWalleye Weizen: A Bavarian style wheat beer, Walleye Weizen is light and refreshing, with just a hint of maltiness. The use of the very smooth Tettnanger hops offers a subtle level of bitterness, and a slightly fruit aroma. When used with a traditional wheat yeast (Wyeast 3056 and 3068 are recommended, see Ask Dr. Zoot below for more information on the characteristics of each strain), it is difficult to distinguish Walleye Weizen from a classic hefe-weizen. Recipe Includes: 6 Lbs Wheat Malt Extract, 1 oz Tettnanger bittering hops, 1 oz Tettnanger aroma hops, 1/2 Lb Cara Pils, yeast, priming sugar and instructions.
Recipe Includes: 6 Lbs Wheat Malt Extract, 1 oz Tettnanger bittering hops, 1 oz Tettnanger aroma hops, 1/2 Lb Cara Pils, raspberry flavoring, yeast, priming sugar and instructions.
Recipe includes: 6 lbs Wheat Malt Extract, 3.3 lbs Dark Malt Extract, 1 oz. Tettnanger bittering hops, 1 oz. Tettnanger aroma hops, 1/2 lb. Carapils & 1/2 lb. Crystal 50°L, yeast and priming sugar.
OFFER EXPIRES: June 2008 INTERNET NEWSLETTER
Ask Dr. Zoot:
Ask Dr. Zoot Q. What are the flavor characteristics of the classic wheat beer strains? A. In general there are two main flavor profiles of the classic hefe-weizen yeasts. There are those which exhibit the intensely fruity and clovey flavor and those that have a more subdued flavor. In terms of Wyeast, this is well captured by the two most popular hefe-weizen strains: Bavarian Wheat 3056, which has a more subdues, less pehnolic, less clovey and more banana accented flavor; and Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan strain, which exhibits a more spicey and clove accented flavor. Both should ferment between 65 and 70 F, although they can ferment down to about 60 - 62 F. Q. What is the traditional way to package wheat beer? A. German wheat beer is actually treated very similar to lagers. The wort is first cooled to about 50 - 55 degrees F. and then pitched with a healthy starter culture. After about 3- 4 days at between 62 and 68 F., the beer is then transferred to a cool secondary fermenter at traditional lager temps far clarification purposes. Next, it will be filtered out of a secondary fermenter, then bottled with extra lager yeast and speise (unfermented wort) to produce a given level of carbonation in the bottle at warm temperatures (60 - 79 F) and then stored refrigerated. Other breweries, will bottle with the same weizen strain that they used in the primary fermentation. A cool secondary fermentation is considered essential to produce the richness and smoothness that the best German examples demonstrate. But I have often brewed great weizens in the summer when the fermentation temperatures are substantially higher than they should be. But this is the basic program if you want to be as authentic as possible in sticking to style guidelines. Q. What is the correct fermentation temperature for wheat beers? A. That depends upon the type of yeast you are using. If using a traditional weizen yeast, temperatures above 65 F. will produce more of a banana/bubblegum and less marshmallow/vanilla/clove flavors. If you ferment above 70 F., the beer will become increasingly sour and "funky", and if you are above 75 F., the beer will become increasingly infection prone, at least using the traditional weizen yeast strains. I believe the reason for this is that these strains have a bacteria strain which becomes more active beyond 70 F., and begins to takeover the flavor of the beer. Temperatures between 60 and 65 F. will produce a fairly mild wheat beer with a subtle balance between vanilla and clove, as well as a richer and maltier flavor. (If you have a place to ferment your beer that is around 70, you can place your fermenter in a large container, and fill it about 1/3 - ½ full of cold water, wrap your fermenter with a towel and make sure the towel constantly stays wet. This will lower your fermentation temperature to 62 - 64 F.) |