Summer 2011
During the hot summer months, weizen beers are popular among many drinkers. Some claim it is a light, refreshing beer great for quenching thirst. Whether weizen goes best with summer is for you to decide. But we see what people are saying: the light color, relatively light body and slightly sweet taste seem to offset weather that makes you feel hot and heavy.
A weizen is essentially a wheat beer, though they often still contain a good amount of malted barley. Most are also top-fermented. The yeast (which eats the sugars to create alcohol) ferments at higher temperatures than lager yeasts. Also, while fermenting, a foamy substance rises to the top of the fermentation tank. Natural fermentation creates CO2, and flocs (let’s just think of this as foam) stick to the CO2 and rise. The wheat, together with the special yeast, creates a particular flavor unique to weizen beers. It is sometimes sweet and reminiscent of banana or clove (this is due to the dominant phenol, a result of the yeast).
In German tradition, more than 50% wheat must be mixed with the barley malt. In Belgian traditions, flavorings like coriander and orange peel were added in a tradition carried on today, most notably by Hoegaarden, but also by a few Japanese craft brewers.
Weizen beers are often hazy and pale because of the yeast and the fact that they contain wheat, and not heavily roasted barley (which provides darker colors). Weizen can be filtered, to remove remaining yeast, or unfiltered, resulting in a cloudier color. Filtration also removes some of the wheat protein that adds to cloudiness.
In competitions, there are strict guidelines for weizens, which stipulate hop bitterness (typically low) and carbonation (generally high), among other characteristics. These standards help provide balance with the sweetness. If you’ve got a good palate, you’ll recognize the balance without knowing the rules!
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All Beer Styles articles are written by Mark Meli, author of Craft Beer in Japan.
This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.
