Tasted: Hefewitzen 8.0

As you can probably tell, we make this beer a lot.  This version (8.0) is the eighth iteration of this recipe and possibly the best.  It has been a struggle to get any kind of body or significant mouthfeel from this beer over the years.  The flavors have worked themselves out long ago, but the stubbornness of wheat has not allowed us to perfect this "style."  I write it as a "style" because we kind of made this one up.  We have always enjoyed the faux-gruit flavors of coriander and orange peel as well as the banana and clove present in the Hefeweissen yeast.  The though for this "style" was to combined the two in some unholy matrimony to create a unique and enjoyable flavor profile.  However, getting this beer to exhibit any sense of body has been a real challenge.  It wasn't until very recently in a conversation with Tom, the owner of our local home brew shop, that I realized wheat requires a high mash temp due to its highly fermentable nature.  We had been mashing this recipe at 150 to 152 over the years, thinking that this beer would be awful as a big bodied beer.  So over the years we added less and less malted wheat and more and more flaked wheat.  This did a few things, added more haze to the final product and reduced the convertibility of the mash.  To think, we were heading in the wrong direction for years with this beer.  Well, its all been made up for now, unfortunately, it has become more of a Wit than a Hef and would probably be better suited with the correct yeast.

Appearance:  8
Aroma:  10
Style:  8
Bitterness:  5
Maltiness:  5
Mouthfeel:  5
Head:  5
Balance:  5

These marks earn the Hefewitzen 8.0 a 51 out of 55 and a percentage of 93%.

Like a late summer evening, the striking visual of a gold haze filling a glass with a cloudy white head draws you into its soft pillowy top.  Before drifting off into the comfort of its bosom you are awoken by the bright scent of fresh orange peel and sweet coriander.  The first sip is cooling and refreshing leaving you with a faint hint of bananas and cloves.  The body is there, but just barely allowing you to savor only the most flavorful parts of the beverage.  Once consumed, the sweet nectar calls back to you, asking you to "have another."

As I said earlier, this version of the Hefewitzen is probably one of, if not the best versions of this beer we have made.  There's not much I would change at this point (as the recipe goes), but I would like to try it as a true Wit.  As far as this particular brew goes, I think if it had been mashed at the proper temperature (158 degrees F), it would have been perfection.

Recipe: Hefewitzen 8.0