BlueJ said:
<chopped>Then one day I was in Germany and I tasted a good weizen. I just understood it, I 'got' it. That turned my whole attitude to beer right around.
So weizens are special to me for more than just their great taste. Making a good one is absolutely my personal, home brewing, holy grail.
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[post="121134"][/post]
OK, I resent the term beer club. Too "beer-wanker" for me. Personal taste (personal taste, or otherwise).
If you see it as a club...whatever floats ya boat! As long we don't make it exclusive. Cheers.
Regarding your opinion above: Testifyyyyy!
Did U know that Wheat beer was reserved for royalty until the 1600s. Anyone have the facts to correct me here? Warren?, ur good with this stuff!
So, I thought..."Good enough for those blokes, good enough for me".
My first wheat beer was Redback, which I now judge as too bitter. First Bavarian wheat beer was Schofferhofer hefe, and a grand bier it is. Certainly a benchmark for me. Your fave?
They better be easy to brew, given our current level of experience. I do get the impression from reading the various weizen threads that the satisfaction rate is high.
Does anyone have any suggestions for treatments at the end of the ferment, in terms of racking, resting, cold conditioning or whatever? Or should I just bottle and enjoy as the man said?
Da man who said dat..he da
maaan!
Bottle/keg and evaluate ASAP.
Easy? If you think that you could score a red ribbon with your first-ever comp entry, would U call that easy?
Would U believe that I haven't changed the recipe for my fave extract weizen very much since I first brewed it? I reckon that's an easy beer.
As long as U start out with a decent recipe, you should be able to tweak it and be happy with it in a short time.
Many weizens made in this country are overhopped in both bitterness and flavour. Yeah, that's what I think, but we all know the value of opinions (if not, search my early posts for the word "opinion").
Bad wheat beers can be made, though. You must still care for your sanitation and your yeast culture especially. If you get a phenolic taste, check to see that the taste is balanced by the fruitiness. If the phenolics are overwhelming, you may have a wild yeast contamination in your beer (buy another yeast or reculture from a clean batch), or you used W3056 blend and you fermented way too high. I have done both.
Then there are Belgian wheat beers. Would love to get a book on them. There's Wit, Maaswheat and possibly lambics (aren't they wheat beers?). Lambic soon, I think. Just 5 others beers first (ha ha ha).
the secret to any wheat beer seems to be almost entirely yeast and ferment temps
tangent, U said a mouthful. Yeast selection (use a wheat yeast, not a standard ale yeast) and ferment temp (although more with Belgian wheats/Wit rather than Weizen), are both crucial.
That's enough testifying from me tonite.
Sleep tight, little BlueJ. Tomorrow's another day suitable for brewing your ultimate weizen.
One more thing...the American wheat beer is an underestimated quantity, and a hoppy (beer named above) will keep you 3 shades of happy in Summer and maybe all year round. And that's a unique happiness, not the same as U get from weizen, or dunkelweizen.
Time to go.
Seth out
*(is there a filibuster limit here?)*
