German hefeweizen (or wheat beer if that’s easier) was a bit of a gateway beer style for me. They don’t tend to be very hoppy or very bitter, they’re usually quite sweet and they’re different enough from lager to get make you curious. I guess approachable would be the word I’d use, enough to pique an interest but not palate-shocking enough to scare you off.
Meantime Wheat is a decent enough example of the style, brewed not in Germany but in East London. It’s 5 percent ABV and uses wheat and pale malt, perle and northern brewer hops.
Wheat beers should be drunk with the yeast in. I find this adds a richness to the feel of the beer and gives it a thicker, more velvety texture. When served from a bottle in Germany, the beer will be poured almost completely into the glass before the last few drops are swirled around the bottom of the bottle to pick up as much of the sediment as possible, this is then thrown in too. When pouring, it’s also important to be quite aggressive, you want to create a big pillow of head to sit on top of the beer.
Meantime Wheat is a glorious, glowing amber colour with a white fluffy cloud of head on top. I’m thinking that more must be at work in this beer than wheat and pale malt – how else could that colour have been achieved? The yeast-driven phenols are there but they’re not easy to pick out as one of the traditional banana, clove or bubblegum. I get some orange notes and a sort of hummy, pear drop flavour that I’m really struggling to describe. The body is a little thin, there’s a caramel, toffee sweetness lurking in the background and it feels like it needs more body for that to be brought forward. Combined with the heavy carbonation, I can’t help but think of seltzer water.
I don’t really drink much wheat beer these days; that’s the thing with a gateway, you tend to move on into the house. When I do though, it’s more often than not with food. Wheat beers work really well with desserts I think and one of my favourite combinations is a banana-forward wheat beer with banana pancakes, delicious.
So, am I being a bit tough of this one, what do you think?
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My notes on this seems to indicate for me it sort of disapeared half way through, taste just blanded out.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big Wheat beer drinker either, but do enjoy them from time to time. As part of my adventures in Home Brewing though I decided to make one a couple of weeks back, which as they are best drunk young I have been drinking for a few days, so my tastebuds have adapted slightly.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Meantime Wheat:
I didn't find much in the way of an aroma, maybe a hint of sherbert, but hard to detect with so much CO2 coming out, I found it to be a bit over carbonated for my liking. I didn't find a lot in the taste either, maybe a hint of clementines and lemon, and a bit sweeter than most wheats I thought.
It was also a little dark, maybe some dark Munich Malt in there giving a hint of colour and that sweet toffee ish flavour.
There was none of the distinctive banana ester and phenols, or even a hint of clove, which is quite the standard for wheat beers, I felt that the lack of these let it down somewhat.
It was a wheat beer, it was drinkable, but it won't be on my shopping list for the future.
arn: I know what you're saying. I thought it was a bit thin and empty. A bit more body would've helped carry it all the way to the bottom of the glass.
ReplyDeleteGDB: I think a lot of carbonation is ok for the style. You disagree? Agree completely about the colour and the toffee/caramel. There must be more in that grain bill than they state because that colour has to come from somewhere. I think it's a decent enough example of a wheat beer but far from the best I've ever had.
Will S: Temperature and carbonation are massive factors in beer flavour. I could write thousands of words on the topic, so won't really attempt to answer that fully here. Generally though, lower temperatures will suppress flavour and higher CO2 will make a beer feel lighter but can give a "carbonic bite".
Mark
ReplyDeleteI know higher carbonation is part of the style, but my personal taste would prefer less. I prefer my cider almost flat, and my lagers less carbed than is the norm.
Maybe my taste buds are adapted to lightly carbonated keg beer, as that's what I mostly drink. I have always found fizz to be something I prefer to avoid. Flat coke is better than fizzy.
Will
Temperature makes a huge difference, I always store my beers at 12 centigrade as that's what I prefer. I don't like beer out of the fridge, unless if its lager.
It's not just carbonation levels that is important, what its carbonated with can have a huge effect, a pure CO2 carbonation will give larger bubbles than a CO2 Nitrogen mix, which gives smaller bubble as you would find in draught Guinness.
Interesting, never heard someone say they prefer flat coke to fizzy! That's cool though, we all have our own personal preferences. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat point about nitrogen. You could write at LENGTH about the topic, but that's a basic that I didn't think of when I wrote my reply.