The first draft on all 15 chapters of Brewing with Wheat is out the door. They will be back from technical editing soon enough, reminding me why I should stick to collecting stories instead of writing about brewing science.
In the meantime we can make fun of somebody who knows less than I. Should have noticed this before but had my nose in notes related to ferulic acid production.
Here’s the story: Top 10 Wheat Beers: Imported and Domestic.
MMMMMM WHEAT PILS.
What’s (sorta) funny is that I asked maltsters about what’s different about the flavor of wheat. They’ll say you can taste it, but the differences are of degree.
Therefore you can brew a . . . yes . . . pilsner with a good portion of wheat (40% works better than 20% for clarity).
Of course, I want to ask “Then why don’t, or do they?” but imagine that’s a question I’d best wait for answered in the book, right? Can I at least chuckle at the Berliner Weisse description? You know, that “rare effervescent stand out” with “bubbles almost reminiscent of carbonation”?
Looking forward to having more preconceived notions busted at publishing time!
Rob, German tax laws require weissbiers be brewed with 50 percent wheat, so that’s not changing.
It would make a great experiment for a homebrew club, making wheat beers with 0% wheat, 10%, 20% etc. and then seeing what sort of differences a taste panel perceived.
I know of at least one brewery (sorry, can’t say) that did a taste test (not worrying about appearance) and the top-rate wheat beer had not wheat in it.
There are a bunch of things that might have been interesting to pursue if I had two more years to work on the project . . .
Good heavens! Stan, I have no doubt your draft is better researched and written that that article. Thank you for pointing it out. It is good to know, in advance, the sort of misinformation I may need to respond to in beer conversations.
On the matter of the brewery’s top-ranking wheat beer being devoid of wheat, I am not surprised. As I am sure you do, I know many that do not care for the wheat flavor in beer. It just does not sit right with them. However, many also equate “wheat” with “light,” so a brewer could (does?) do well marketing a “wheat” beer that has very little wheat in the grain bill.
Wow, I’d need a week of solid study to tally up the number of errors, mis-speaks, and outright ridiculous statements in that article. It’s like it was translated to another language and then back into English – but with a really bad translator. What a train wreck!