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.

Comments

Out of the Bottle: Insert clever use of the word Wit here

My latest Wit was a hit at my friend's birthday party. He especially liked the beer's citrus components. Others found it to be light and refreshing. I heard no Blue Moon comparisons, which actually made me quite happy. Compared to My Wit's End , this beer is much closer to style. Unmalted Wheat is part of the reason, as there's much less grainy sweetness at work. Instead, the beer is crisp and dry. The bitter orange peel really does its thing. The peel's sharp flavor melds nicely with the sweet orange peel I also used. Coriander pushes the beer's spicy character along. If I were to change anything, it would be to dial it back a notch or two. Some light sourdough aromas round out the flavor and aroma. Despite the relatively low ABV of right around 5.0%, the beer sports a fairly hefty body. Overall, I'm quite happy with this Wit. Next time, I'll hold back on the coriander. Maybe I will even take a shot at a Turbid Mash, which sounds like a great sub...

In the Fermentor: Kitchen Sink Barleywine

The Leftovers It's time for a cleanup of leftover grains and partially used packets of hops from 2012. With the exception of the 2-Row base malt, everything in the recipe below has been sitting on the shelf, or in the fridge waiting to be used. I had several open hop packages, some leftover toasted malts and a half-full bottle of malt extract too. I also had yeast cultured from my White House Honey Porter . My decision was to use almost all of my leftovers and make a partial-mash Barleywine. The finished beer will be quite strong and quite bitter. A toasted malt backbone should nicely complement pine, spice and citrus hop flavors. Because of the beer's strength, it will not be ready for at least three months and should improve with age. The recipe has been scaled up to five gallons from the 2.5 gallons I actually brewed: Grains: 9 lbs Rahr 2-Row 8.5 oz Victory 7.5 oz Brown Hops: Bittering: 0.75 oz Chinook (11.1% a.a.): 60 min 0.5 oz Colum...

In the Fermentor: Flaming Pumpkin

I'll admit that I'm not a huge Pumpkin Beer fan. I didn't have one on my brewing calendar for this year and didn't have my sights set on one for next Fall either. Then my niece came along and threw down the gauntlet. She asked me to brew her a pumpkin beer and I accepted the challenge. I did a lot of reading to see how to best go about using pumpkin in beer. Some people mash it with the grains. Others add it to the brew kettle during the boil. Some add it to the primary or secondary fermentor. The consensus from professional brewers appears to be adding it to the mash, so I took the same approach. The pumpkin was cooked ahead of time by my girlfriend to soften it, convert some of the starch and help release some of its sugars. It then joined the grains in the mash. I really want the pumpkin pie effect here, so I've thrown in all of the requisite spices toward the end of the boil. I've also gone with just enough bitterness to balance the sweetness of the ...

Colorado Kitchen Brew

Search This Blog