Comments for Brewing with Wheat

Comment on Piece Dark-n-Curvy Dunkelweizen by Stan

Stan — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:04:02 +0000

Jason - Sorry I missed this before. BSI is Brewing Science Institute in Colorado, which banks about 300 yeast strains. Probably more by now.

Comment on Piece Dark-n-Curvy Dunkelweizen by Jason

Jason — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:34:53 +0000

What is BSI?

Comment on What’s in the book by jay mollerskov

jay mollerskov — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:47:09 +0000

I just picked this up last weekend. Thank you for writing it! This book is amazing! It’s quite exciting to have such a well-written addition to the literature that includes much needed discussion of Berliner Weiss, Gose, and other “lost styles.”

I look forward to reading it in it’s entirety (probably several times.)

Comment on About by Deb Cohen

Deb Cohen — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:38:19 +0000

I am a supplier of organically grown wheat. We are looking for new markets. I would like to know which types of wheat are best for malting and beer brewing as well as the required specifications needed for malting. If anyone is interested in purchasing certified organic wheat please contact me 410-472-9158. The growers would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Deb Cohen

Comment on Brewing and drinking American-style wheat beers by Stan

Stan — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:22:13 +0000

Hi Nate – Sorry I didn’t see this before.

You will find quite a bit about process in the book, including what temps brewers pitch at and how high they let them rise during fermentation.

One quick note, pitching low and let is rise (often into the 80sF) is more common when brewing strong Trappist/abbey type beers and saisons than it is Belgian wheats (basically wits).

Comment on Brewing and drinking American-style wheat beers by Nathaniel Letcher

Nathaniel Letcher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:22:56 +0000

Hello Stan,

I would like to see something along the lines of what Ray Daniels did with “Designing Great Beers”. He did extensive research on recipe formulation and that is helpful for the brewer who wants to stick to the style but exercise freedom over their recipe as well. However, rather than hop or grain selection, it seems more important to me as a brewer of wheat beer to select an appropriate fermentation temperature and to ask myself, what kind of character do I want to elicit from the yeast? Perhaps I am misguided here but is it not typical of Belgian brewers to pitch warm and let the temperature of the beer fluctuate naturally while many American homebrewers pitch yeast to their wheat beers at a relatively low temperature, say around 60 F, and then ferment low as well, at around 65 F. It would be interesting to compare the American take on wheat beer (which is to use more grains, more unusual ingredients, and more hop additions) alongside its European counterparts, for which the focus is more on process than heavy-handed complexity.

Comment on Can you spot the errors in this story? by Scott at East End Brewing

Scott at East End Brewing — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:26:57 +0000

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!

Comment on Can you spot the errors in this story? by Doak

Doak — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:32:55 +0000

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.

Comment on Can you spot the errors in this story? by Stan

Stan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:43:42 +0000

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 . . .

Comment on Can you spot the errors in this story? by Rob

Rob — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:50:36 +0000

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!