Out of the Bottle: Weizenbock

My first ever Weizenbock is ready to go. I'm pleased with the results, but not overjoyed. It's a nice beer, but it feels like there could be so much more.

Being a glass half-full kind of guy, I'll start with the positives. The beer looks great. It's appropriately cloudy from the yeast, has a nice hue and a rocky head that sticks around. There's also a pleasant baking chocolate and fresh bread aroma, plus a bit of banana and clove. In the mouth, the beer is nice and dense. Bitterness is low and there are no hop flavors on hand.

Where things begin to go off script is in the flavor. The beer is simply sweeter than it should be. I've read that a traditional decoction mash can help, so I may have to track down a stove-top way of doing one. Also, I think that the Gambrinus Munich Light malt I used simply isn't close enough to actual German Munich Malt. Unfortunately, my local homebrew store doesn't carry the stuff. I'm going to have to check the other Denver area homebrew stores or go online to track some down.

Also, a lot of brewers seem to shy away from dry Weiss yeasts, but I've had pretty decent luck with Safbrew WB-06. In the this particular beer, the banana and clove notes were rather subtle, so I may switch to a liquid strain for the next round.

So, to recap, it's a good beer, but not a great one that could benefit from German Munich Malt, liquid yeast and perhaps a decoction mash. Thankfully, I'm planning on brewing a Dunkelweiss soon, so I can try some or all of these things out.

Update 4/21/13:

After a few extra weeks, the sweetness I complained about has subsided somewhat. The beer still leans toward the sweeter end of the flavor spectrum, but the bready flavors have started to catch up.

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