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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