American...Hefeweizen?

My take on this labeling issue is that the qualifying statement often seen with these labels is something like, "...our interpretation of x-style beer." I have seen this more on the German lookalike beers than others. Although using fruit instead of hops or yeasts to yield a beer's taste is moving along the same path and is what I oftentimes call "short-cut" beer.

P.S. I truly admire the brewers that "get it right" because it is not necessarily easy to do.

 

I do as well, I personally appreciate 'traditional' beer styles.

It seems to me that lots of (most?) craft beer drinkers appreciate something 'new' over 'traditional'.

Cheers!

 

I hate the use of Hefe or Hefeweisse for American Wheat Beers. The name Hefeweisse pretty much means wheat beer with yeast. So an unfiltered wheat based beer does fit that description. The issue arises only when you know what a real Hefe is. Someone who only knows Widmer Hefe would likely be just as freaked out if they had an Ayinger.

 

A very good point. Sad to realize, but still a good point.

 

Would a beer that follows the same general process as a German hefeweizen but uses a different yeast strain and an American hop be an American style hefeweizen?

 

And Hefeweizen is a particular style.

 

That pretty much describes just what an American Wheat Ale or American Hefeweizen is -- depending on what you mean by "same general process," which I take to mean a mash with a mix of wheat & barley malt, top fermented, and served with yeast suspension.

Probably up to individual breweries whether they want to bottle condition, as many Bavarian Weizens are.

 

Depending upon the yeast. Otherwise you have a yeast with the clove banana taste profile or a wheat IPA. The difference is quite pronounced! Although a hefeweizen isn't my every day go-to beer, I tend to work them into my rotation when in Bavaria where you find very fine tasting hefe with a range of minor differences, but never to be confused with a USA wheat beer. My experience is that many smaller craft brew places are still learning how to brew beer and over rely upon a limited number of hops, malts, and yeasts and the careful attention to cleaning (from the beginning of the brew process to the tap lines putting beer in the glass).

Another couple, my wife and I, and about ten others shared a tour at Weihenstephan, great tour guide working on his brewing PhD at the university there. Part of the discussion branched out into why didn't they brew more dark beers. His answer was, "The water." All I can say is the chemistry makes some things work, or not.

 

I'm guessing the genuine answer is "sales."

 

LOL!

The beers of Southern Germany were dark (e.g., Dunkels) for centuries because the water there is well suited to brewing dark beers. Brewing pales beers (e.g., Helles, Pilsner) is a relatively recent phenomenon. The first Helles beer was brewed in Bavaria in 1894.

Hopefully this dude will learn more before he is awarded his PhD!?!

Prost!

 

Geology can vary widely in a region and this may be the case in Freising. For example, see:
https://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Various_water_recipes

 

How do (did) they explain this one, then?

 

A one-off for people who insisted upon a hefe-dunkle? To be fair, my ratings of their dunkle-type offerings rated much lower than their traditional hefe-non-dunkle. For me their hefeweizen and vitus are top-of-class and their dunkleweiss I would pass on. The other dunkles I drank in Freising town brewery pubs were so-so.

 

exactly. "southern germany" doesn't cut it when trying to define bavarian water chemistry profiles. much less when including baden-württemberg etc.

 

That doesn't change the fact that dark beers (e.g., Dunkels) were brewed in Bavaria for many centuries and that pale beers are a relatively recent thing.

Cheers!

 

weissbier has been brewed in Bavaria since the 12th century at least. they're not dark

 

A one-off? They've been brewing it for a long time and still brew it.

FWIW -- I went out of my way to drink a lot of Dunkelweizen and Munich Dunkel on my trips to Bavaria. There was a lot to be had and all very good (at least when I visited), non-optimal water or not. It's why breweries employ chemists.

And the tour guides aren't employed as chemists or brewers.

 

@herrburgess -- you spent some time in Wurzburg, didn't you? Do you remember the popular Weissbier brand there?

I spent an evening at a small festival in town where my friends and I found a vendor selling Dunkelweizen. Toward the end of the night the server told us, stone-faced, that there was no more.

I'm pretty sure we didn't drink him dry and he was saving it for the locals. He *did* serve us the pale Hefeweizen.