Style Of The Week 13/9/06 - Weizen

[Reman]

The normal flavours you may get in a wheat beer are bubble gum, banana and clove (spicy), anything else may be an infection as per Les' post above.

 

[danestead]

I find wheat beers are slightly sour normally. How sour are you talking?

 

[fraser_john]

I find hefeweizen has a pretty low pH after ferment (around 4?) and might attribute what people think as a sourness, but is more tart than sour.

 

[kaiserben]

Dunno if you're familiar with the taste of weizens, so this info might already be obvious to you, but as well as what the others have mentioned weizens tend to have a more pronounced carbonic bite than most other beers. So a number of things could be making your palate sense sourness.

I remember many moons ago, the first time I ever tried a German weizen I thought I was tasting infection. It was just very different to the beers I was used to at the time.

 

[kaiserben]

Next one will be a dunkelweizen and I'll have it at 24C from go to woah.

I'm now drinking this next batch and it's even better than the hefe (if that were even possible).

I fermented this dunkelweizen with WLP300 without any temp control (ambient was low-mid-20s, so would've gone higher during ferment activity) and there's noticeable banana, but it's not crazy-banana and no off flavours detected at all.

After losing my love for weizens I'm well and truly back in love with them. I've already brewed and pitched yeast into what is now my 3rd weizen batch within the past 5 weeks (which is good going considering I've brewed other stuff in between as well).

 

[Fendercaster]

Sour in what way, please? Acetic/ vinegar sour, or lactic/ yoghurt sour, or other (please describe)?

Im sorry as to exact, but the best term mentioned is "Tart". Not vinegar or lactic. Similar to apricots. But tart. Palatable. I think im expecting an almost mellow aftertone. Im not getting too much banana notes. My thoughts are infection, i thought i was thorough but these things happen.

 

[Weizguy]

<Snipped>

After losing my love for weizens I'm well and truly back in love with them. I've already brewed and pitched yeast into what is now my 3rd weizen batch within the past 5 weeks (which is good going considering I've brewed other stuff in between as well).

How can you fall out of love with weizenbier?
What kind of a brewer/ drinker are you?

Anyhow, good to hear that you're reconciled again and back in honeymoon phase.

 

[kaiserben]

I stopped brewing for a bit (well 10 years is more than a bit) due to a lack of space - and in the meantime most of the commercial stuff we get here is usually old and stale and/or light-struck. So my perception was warped by the stuff I was drinking.

 

[WhiteLomu]

The normal flavours you may get in a wheat beer are bubble gum, banana and clove (spicy), anything else may be an infection as per Les' post above.

Might just be me, but I also get pear from my hefes using WLP300 and from Franziskaner Hefe.
Cheers

 

[Reman]

Might just be me, but I also get pear from my hefes using WLP300 and from Franziskaner Hefe.
Cheers

I must admit that I've never gotten pear from the Franziskaner's I've had, either on tap or from the bottle. Not saying you don't get it as everyone has different thresholds for the various flavour compounds.