Tag Archives for Hefe Weissbier

Hefeweizen Mk II Tasting

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(I’ll put a picture of the finished article in when I remember…)

What is it with me and wheat beers? I like them, but they seem to want to conspire against me when I make them.

Here’s the original recipe here: https://yeastismybitch.com/2015/05/26/hefeweizen-mk-ii-in-a-braumeister/

This time around I got the carbonation pretty much how I wanted it, the mouthful is generous and creamy and the yeast brought forth lashes of banana and bubblegum.

It’s a beautiful luminous pale golden with a nice haze and everything…

So what let’s it down you may ask…

Well it’s a little light on the bitterness…so it’s lovely in taste but doesn’t have that subtle bitter edge that should really set it off and balance the sweetness out a bit.

And the head. Oh good God, the head…It has a really nice head to start off with…and then it collapses, spectacularly, to leave a really odd smattering of very dense foam islands…a bit like broken cloud on a summer’s day…so Christ alone knows what happened there.

I’m happily drinking it and Eve likes it, but it certainly won’t win many awards…

The next one will be great, I’m sure.  I might also do it with WLP300 – not because it’s better than the Mangrove Jack’s yeast, but because it’s just plain mental – and I like that in a yeast!

The Friar’s Favourite: Franziskaner – Hefe Weissbier

20140924_192547I seem to have gone Weissbier crazy these past few reviews.  If the truth be told I just can’t get enough of their creamy refreshing ways.  Next up: Franziskaner Weissbier…

Look at the label: that Franciscan monk looks suitably pleased with himself – and he should do: as far as he’s concerned he’s got God on his side and he gets to drink this lovely beer.

Out it came and into the glass, a slightly muted orangey colour with plently of hefe haze.  As with all beers containing wheat, Franziskaner had a huge dollop of fluffy snow-white head.

On the nose there was quite an assertive minerals and grain theme with a soothing back-up of spice and banana*

Before the taste there was the vigorous carbonation – typical of Weissbier style, which slowly dissipates to reveal a nice up-front spiciness, followed by smooth banana creaminess and then a really nice spicy-prickly dry note that persists for an astonishing amount time.

The after-taste is that of lovely creaminess with more overlay of dry peppery spiciness

This is another lovely example of the Weiss style…

https://www.franziskaner-weissbier.de/unsere-biere/hefe-weissbier-naturtrueb  (which is all in German. but there is such a thing as Google Translate!)

(*Banana, why banana?  Well.  It’s all to do with a chemical called Isoamyl Acetate that gets produced as a by-product of the ferementing yeast.  Weiss yeasts are particularly good at producing this pronounced banana taste.  Lots of information on Isoamyl Acetate here: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/07/isoamyl-acetate-banana-flavour-podcast – the seventh paragraph on, if you don’t want to read it all)

Wahey, Stephen! Weihenstephaner (@WeihenstephanUK) – Hefe Weissbier

20140918_201431My awful photography just doesn’t do this beer justice…

…at least I’m presuming that’s how the name translates?  Maybe I’ve got that wrong?  :o)

Just as it’s getting on towards Autumn I go and start reviewing beautiful refreshing wheat beers.  Typical…

Anyway:  Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier – what a lovely, lovely, lovely beer.

Arriving a really gorgeous, almost luminous hazy orange colour and sporting the snowiest caps – this beer is a joy to behold.

The aroma is deliciously tempting: being all yeastily-complex with graininess from the wheat, some bubble-gummy notes and a delicate spicy edge.

In the mouth it’s highly carbonated – that, after a short while, dissolves away leaving a soft and creamy cranachan-like mouth-feel, upon which a beautiful spicy sweetness plays out.

Wheat beer in my opinion is all about the mouth-feel – you just can’t get that with barley malt alone – and it serves as a great back-drop for all the other flavours; it’s such a great ingredient for this feeling of sumptuous, velvety indulgence.

After the swallow, spiciness fizzes and pops on the tongue before a blanket of creaminess comes down once again – bringing gentle cloves and banana at the very end.

Refreshing and silky smooth, this in one hell of beer: easy and joyous to drink – but do take the time to appreciate the breadth and depth of its complexity…as you pour literally gallons of it down your neck.

http://weihenstephaner.de/our-beers

Could I even attempt to reproduce something as good as this at home?  We’ll see…