An expert America homebrewer weighs in on American hefeweizens
By William Brand
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 5:28 pm in Craft Beer, General.
Jumping back in where angels fear to tread, Don Russell, who writes the Joe Sixpack column every Friday in the Philadelphia Daily News and the Beer Radar blog, just posted an interview with Fred Kline, a medal-winning Pennsylvania homebrewer. Why, he asked, do American brewers have such a tough time with hefeweizens? Part of his answer pretty well summarizes why I don’t like Widmer Hefeweizen very much:
The Germans let the yeast be powerful giving big banana and clove while staying balanced. They’re just the experts at the right fermentation temp, yeast strain and pitching rate etc. to get the most. I bottle mine right after the primary is done to capture the most fresh might of the yeast.
3. Maybe a lot of our breweries still possess a mentality that because a Hefeweizen is considered a light, refreshing summer type of beer, they error on the lighter side of the spectrum to hit a broader market. The Germans have been drinking good beer a couple of centuries long than us. Their palates expect bold, complex grain bills. READ THE REST OF THE POST…
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]
August 14th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
another homebrewer weighing in: there’s a huge difference between an american wheat beer and a german hefeweizen. there are some ingredient and methodological (is that even a word?)differences, but yeast is the biggest one. it seems like a lot of american micros will erroneously call their wheat beers hefeweizens, when they’re not using any of the unique german wheat strains. it’s my guess a lot of them use the basic american ale strain (wyeast 1056 or equivalent)in their wheats which results in very little yeast character, but a crisp, wheaty-grainy refreshing beer. no clove or banana, which the german strains cna reqally pump out if treated right. not that there’s anything wrong with the resulting american beers, but calling them hefeweizens when they’re not is misleading at best. i’m looking at you widmer, pyramid, etc…
August 14th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I’m no beer historian, but I believe the idea that a wheat beer should be clean-asting with no clove or banana notes started with Anchor’s what beer, which I think was the first American wheat made commercially in eons. It was very clearn, very refreshing, no nuisances like odd flavors and spice. I love Anchor, but their original wheat was borning, So are moste American wheats, in my humble opinion. Slante has it right.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Even when a lot of American Breweries make a Bavarian style, which the blog is talking about, they don’t make them as flavorful as the Germans. Just compare Samual Adam’s Bavarian Wheat next to Franziskaner’s Weisse and it will leave you wondering why Samual Adams even bothered. They miss the point.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Have you tried Gordon Biersch Hefeweizen or Dunkelweizen? I think Dan Gordon, who is German-trained, nailed both styles. And by G-B, I mean the brewery in San Jose, CA. not the brewpub chain.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Looked it up on the internet. Love to try it but no distribution in PA.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
George, If you’re near a Trader Joe’s, they carry a Joseph Brau label that is brewed by Gordon Biersch. The dunkel and Hefe are really good.
Seems like a lot of locations near Philly, one in Pitt, not sure if they can sell beer with those whacky PA laws.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:50 am
As of right now, super markets have just been given the OK to sell beer. It has not yet taken hold yet however. The whacky PA laws is a whole other subject. Very frustrating but there are some laws in the state house that may change some things soon.