Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 29317
IF YOU wanted to introduce a wine drinker to beer, wheat beers would be the place to start. They are light, refreshing, with a hint of acidity and are laden with a herbal fragrance.
They are sometimes known as white beers because of their pale colour and the whitish foam which is formed during fermentation. Wheat beers are most prolific in the traditional beer regions of southern Germany, especially in Bavaria, where they are described as weisse (white) or weizen (wheat), the terms being more or less interchangeable.
The beers are usually bottle-conditioned. The term "mit hefe", with yeast, confirms bottle fermentation, while "kristall weizen" indicates no secondary fermentation.
In the most traditional method of bottle conditioning, a secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle in a delicate process requiring just the right amount of residual yeast and sugar left from the primary fermentation. Alternatively, the beer may be centrifuged and a fresh dose of yeast added.
In some instances some of the sediment from the original brew kettle is added to give the same cloudy texture as the yeast, but this does not impart the same fragrant character.
Wheat beers are not confined to southern Germany. There is a light, sharply acidic wheat beer originating in and still made in Berlin, to which fruit syrups are sometimes added.
Belgium, meanwhile, is as renowned as Bavaria for its white beer. This is often, unlike the German equivalent, made with unmalted wheat. Some Belgian wheat beers are flavoured with bitter orange peel and spices such as coriander.
Wheat beers based more or less on the German and Belgian models are made in America, Australia and Japan and have been made in the UK.
Why is wheat beer not more common? Most beers are made from barley because, as Michael Jackson points out in his Beer Companion, wheat, with its stronger gluten content, easily clogs the mashing vessels in a brewery. Hence it is unusual to find wheat beer made without some barley to make the process easier for brewers. JH
