What Makes for a Great German Wheat Beer?
Simple concept: a great wheat beer has wheat character. In the classic German breweries, the wheat character is enhanced by a yeast that produces clove and banana aromatics, giving the beer a fuller, spicier flavor. Anyway, normal gravity (12 Plato, 5 percent alcohol, or thereabouts) is what I look for in German wheats (for the record, Paulaner Hefe-Weizen is brewed to just under 13 degrees Plato and packs 5.5 percent by volume). Cloudiness is always right in a wheat beer with the word “hefe” on the label. The balance should be more sweet malt, with little or no hop bitterness. A nice, light bodied quaffable beer with a zing of wheat. For more details, see my exhaustive overview of wheat beers. A Tall Glass of Liquid Coolness… Right glass for every beer, and nowhere is that more true than when it comes to wheat beers. A good German wheat beer demands to be served in a very tall glass, preferably one with a slim waist-line, though that, of course, is negotiable. I hope the guys at Pau
