On its home turf in Bavaria, a properly brewed wheat ale is usually referred to as a weissbier (German for “white beer) or a weizenbier (“wheat beer”), while in North America this beer is called by its now less common German name of hefeweizen (literally “yeast wheat”). The German Beer Purity Law defines weizenbier as any top-fermented brew that is made with at least 50 percent wheat. A few breweries mash their weissbiers with as much as 75 percent wheat.

Weissbier stands apart from all other beer styles primarily because of one difficult-to-describe signature flavor, which has been variably compared to the taste of clove, banana, nutmeg, vanilla, apple and even bubblegum. As for adjectives, phenolic, spicy, tart, aromatic, fruity, complex and crisp have all been pressed into service to translate the weissbier palate experience into words.

Oh yes, now that you are about to become an expert in weissbier or hefeweizen, you may also wish to pronounce it properly: It’s “vice-beer” for weissbier, not “wise-beer.” For hefeweizen, it’s “hay-fuh-veyt-sssenn,” never “haffie-vi-zon!”

An Ancient Beverage

Wheat beer has apparently been brewed in Bavaria (and probably in neighboring Bohemia) since the Bronze Age. Proof of this is a 2,800-year old earthenware fermentation amphora discovered in 1934 in a Celtic tribal burial mound near the small village of Kasendorf, outside Kulmbach, in northern Bavaria. The amphora can now be seen in the Kulmbach Beer Museum. Scientists have determined that the residues in the amphora are from dark wheat beer.

In spite of this impressive lineage, in historical times, wheat beers had never been an important part of the southern German brewing tradition—until 1520, that is, when the feudal ruler of Bavaria, Duke Wilhelm IV of the Wittelsbach dynasty, rewarded one of his vassals, Duke Hans VI of Degenberg, with the exclusive privilege to brew and sell the not very important “white beer” in his hinterland region. Perhaps unexpectedly, the Degenbergs were able to make quite a profit from their new monopoly. Then, in 1602, Duke Sigismund of Degenberg died without leaving an heir and all the clan’s hereditary privileges — including their Weissbier monopoly, reverted back to the Wittelsbach ruler of the day — Duke Maximilian I.

Max wasted no time in extending his monopoly to all the lands of his realm. Henceforth, only he would be allowed to brew Weissbier. To ensure the proper transfer of brewing knowledge to his state enterprise, he instructed the Degenberg’s former Weissbier-brewmaster Siegmund Bettl to come to Munich and build a “white” brewery, which he did, smack downtown, on the location of the current landmark Hofbräuhaus. Our innkeeper Duke Max opened shop in the new premises in 1605 and never looked back. During the Thirty Years War (1618–1848), only the revenues from the insatiable Weissbier thirst of his Bavarian subjects allowed the House of Wittelsbach to fight off several invasions by the King Gustaf II Adolph of Sweden.

Soon every little town and village in Bavaria had its own Wittelsbach weissbier brewery, and the profits from the monopoly rose to almost one third of Bavaria’s entire state revenues. At the end of the 18th Century, however,  “white beer” fell out of fashion and the traditional brown lager of Bavaria started to make a comeback. As weissbier revenues declined, weissbier breweries run by the state bureaucracy became largely unprofitable. Thus, with the monopoly losing its value, the crown began to lease its weissbier brewhouses to burgher brewers. In 1798, it abandoned the monopoly altogether and, by 1812, only two weissbier breweries were still in operation. Then in 1856, the crown sold the seemingly worthless brew right to a brewer named George Schneider I, who happily started what turned out to be a brand new weissbier dynasty. In 1927, the Schneider family moved its brewery  (a former Wittlesbach brewery) from Munich to Kelheim, a few dozen miles to the east of Munich, where it still is today.

In the 1960s, weissbier experienced a sudden and dramatic revival in popularity, a comeback which continues to this day. Today, weissbier holds more than 35 percent market share in its land of origin and has become Bavaria’s best-selling beer style, even surpassing the formerly dominant helles.

Schneider Weisse

Schneider Weisse Original, from the Private Weissbierbrauerei Georg Schneider & Sohn GmbHA, is a classic among weissbiers. On the label, Schneider chooses to identify its Weisse Original the old-fashioned way as a hefeweizenbier rather than a weissbier because the recipe of this hefeweizenbier is at least 130 years old, which makes it the oldest continuously brewed weissbier in the world. Our homebrew recipe — named Kelheim Weissbier, in honor of the Schneider family — is based in part on information generously supplied by Herr Hans-Peter Drexler, Schneider’s Brew-master and Technical Manager.

Schneider uses a grist bill of pale wheat and barley malts at a ratio of 60 to 40 for its Weisse Original, which is the ratio we use in our recipe as well. Depending on the preferred color of your Weissbier, you can use a single pale malt for the barley portion of the mash or  a mixture of several barley malts of different colors. Common barley malt additions for weissbier include Pils, Vienna, Carafoam®, Carahell® and Cara-munich®. Our model, the Schneider Weisse Original, is slightly more amber than many other weissbier brands.

Phantastic Phenolics

The compound most responsible for a hefeweizen’s signature flavor is a phenol. Phenols are one of the natural byproducts of any yeast’s metabolism, but certain yeast strains simply have a much greater capacity to produce phenols than do others — and hefeweizen yeast strains are particularly good at it. This is precisely why not all beers have the pronounced phenolic taste of a hefeweizen. As a general rule, top fermenting (ale) yeasts produce more phenols than do bottom-fermenting (lager) yeasts.

Phenols, however, can be a mixed blessing. In miniscule quantities, they can make for a very satisfying beer with plenty of depth and a rounded, complex taste. In excess, they can make the same beer taste broad and harsh, almost undrinkable. Quoting Brewmaster Drexler, “In our Weisse Original, for instance, the total phenol level ranges between 2 and 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L). To put this in perspective, a beer with more than 4 mg/L of phenol will actually taste very bitter and too dry.”

In addition, not all phenols are alike. Some are more noticeable than others, depending on their particular taste thresholds for humans. Typical Bavarian weissbier yeasts have a genetic propensity for producing one type of phenol known by the chemical name of 4-vinyl guaiacol, or 4VG for short. This phenol is fairly noticeable in hefeweizens, because they usually contain as much as 0.3 to 0.6 milligrams of 4VG per liter. This level is well above the human taste threshold, around 0.3 mg/L.

Mashing and Ferulic Acid

Four-VG is formed from ferulic acid, a precursor compound in malt, and wheat malts contain more ferulic acid than barley malt. Comments Herr Drexler: “We have found that a mash-in temperature of 37 °C (99 °F) is particularly favorable to ferulic acid production. In addition to the mash temperature, we noticed that barley quality, too, can have a significant impact on the amount of ferulic acid in the wort.”

Traditionally, Weissbier is double-decoction mashed, but the modern Schneider Weisse Original relies on a straightforward infusion that starts at 99 °F (37 °C) and ends at an unusually low temperature of only 145 °F (63 °C)! This method favors the production of plenty of fermentable sugars by beta amylase for a very dry, refreshing beer, while suppressing the production of unfermentable sugars by alpha amylase.

Because wheat, compared to barley, has very little husk material, brewers who push the wheat portion of their grain bill above 70% often have difficulties keeping their lautering times and extract efficiency values within tolerable limits. To prevent stuck mashes, you can “fluff up” your mash with flavorless rice husks (up to 1 unit of husks for 10 units of grain, by weight).

Boiling and Bitterness

Although many hefeweizens are pale beers, boil times may be as long as 2-
1/2 hours. Because a hefeweizen is malt-accented, while hop notes should be in the background. Hallertau Mittelfrüh or Hersbrucker are suitable hop choices. Bitterness is usually kept under 20 IBUs.

Fermentation and 4VG

Hefeweizens are traditionally fermented in open fermenters, and it is there that ferulic acid is transformed into 4VG. The technical term for this transformation is “enzymatic decarboxilation.” Explains Schneider Brewmaster Herr Drexler: “Our own extensive research has confirmed that the phenols in our beers are generated exclusively during fermentation.

As mentioned earlier, hefeweizen yeast strains are particularly good at producing phenols. Commenting on Schneider’s yeast selection, Herr Drexler elaborates, “Ours is a single-strain house yeast based on the common Weihen-stephan 68 variety. I should stress that the standard Weihenstephan 68 produces not only phenols but also plenty of esters, while our own variation of that yeast emphasizes phenol over ester production, which is one reason why most other Bavarian wheat beers taste slightly fruitier-esterier and less clovey-phenolic than our Schneider beers.”

Hefeweizen specialist yeast strains that would work best for our beer include White Labs WLP380 (Hefeweizen IV Ale) and Wyeast 3068 (Weihenstephan Weizen) yeast. White Labs describes its WLP380 as producing clove and phenolic as well as citrus and apricot notes, with minimal banana, but some sulfur. The optimum fermentation temperature is listed as 66–70 °F (20–21 °C). The Wyeast 3068 is descendant of the traditional Hefeweizen workhorses used by many German Weissbier breweries. It is based on the same Weihenstephan strain as the Schneider house yeast. Wyeast describes this yeast as producing a tart brew with banana, phenol and clove notes. The optimum fermentation temperature is listed as 64–75 °F (18–24 °C).

Packaging and Speise

Hefeweizens are bottle-conditioned beers, primed with fermenting wort (called Speise). At Schneider, where many batches are constantly at different stages of fermentation, the Speise is drawn from a batch that has just started its primary fermentation and has plenty of active yeast in suspension. This young beer is added to the finished beer right before bottling.

Several modern breweries, including a few very large ones, use a “multi-strain” concept for their hefeweizens nowadays. They use hefeweizen yeast for primary fermentation only and then pitch their Speise with a Pils or helles-style lager yeast for a “cleaner” taste. The German Beer Purity Law has accommodated this practice by allowing for up to 15% of a weissbier’s volume to be pitched with lager yeast — a practice that, regardless of its technical legality, upsets, to my palate, the proper balance between banana and clove/phenol and slants the beer flavor too much in the direction of smooth banana. The effect is an easy-drinking brew, perhaps more accessible for drinkers from the world of pale lagers, but much less distinct than a weissbier pitched exclusively with a true hefeweizen yeast. As the yeast in a bottle of Schneider Weisse is their primary yeast strain, you can attempt to culture the yeast from a bottle.

Extract Brewing Tips

For extract brewers, the malt extract I chose for our grain bill is Weyermann Bavarian Hefeweizen Extract. This liquid malt extract (LME) is produced entirely from a decoction mash of Weyermann Pale Wheat Malt, Weyermann Pilsner Malt, and Weyermann Carahell®. This grist composition is very similar to the one used in our all-grain recipe. According to information from the Weyermann Malting Company, the extract contains 75% fermentables, so 8.21 lbs. (3.724 kg) of LME is required to reach our OG of 1.056 (14°P). This amount of LME yields a brew with a color rating of roughly 10 °L. Because all Weyermann LMEs come in 4-kg (8.82-lbs.) plastic jerry cans, feel free to cheat just a little bit and use the entire can for your brew.

Weissbier Serving Tips

Always store bottled hefeweizen standing up. This allows the yeast to settle at the bottom of the bottle. For a less yeast-turbid glass of beer, you can pour the entire bottle in one go, while leaving most of the sediment behind. If you prefer a more turbid glass of beer, you can empty the bottle only four-fifths of the way and then roll it flat on a horizontal surface to loosen the sediment. Then pour the intensely cloudy remaining one-fifth in one fell swoop into your glass.

To accentuate the bouquet of weissbier, serve it in a tall, slender glass with plenty of room for the tall head. Best are specially curved weissbier glasses. A glass of weissbier always sports an appetizing, tall, white, creamy head. To prevent excessive foaming as you pour, rinse the glass in cold water but do not dry it. Then tilt the glass as you fill it. Also avoid glasses with grease or detergent residues, because they destroy a beer’s head. Though Weissbier is served with a lemon slice in many parts of the world, this is decidedly verboten in Bavaria. Bavarians believe that the lemon flavor obscures the true flavor of weissbier. They also believe that weissbier does not need assistance from a lemon to taste satisfying and refreshing. On a more objective level, they also point out that the oils in the lemon juice destroy the white creamy head that is so indispensable for a total weissbier experience.

A great hefeweizen has an impressive presence at the table. Because of its racy, palate-cleansing assertiveness, it goes well with such flavorful foods as trout and salmon or a Jaipur or Madras curry. It also goes well with a crisp, tart salad of arugula, romaine or Belgian endive. Of course, it’s also great when quaffed just by itself, especially as a cool, spritzy summer-brew.

Horst Dornbusch is Brew Your Own magazine’s Style Profile columnist.

WEISSBIER (HEFEWEIZEN) by the numbers

OG    1.056 (14 °P)
FG    1.012 (3 °P)
SRM    10
IBU    13–15
ABV    5.4

Kelheim Weissbier
(5 gallons/19 L, all grain)
OG = 1.056   FG = 1.012 
IBU = 14   SRM = ~10  ABV = 5.6%

Ingredients
7.4 lbs. (3.4 kg) Weyermann pale wheat
    malt (2 °L)
1.85 lbs. (0.84 kg) Weyermann Pilsner
    malt (1.8 °L)
1.85 lbs. (0.84 kg) Weyermann Vienna
    malt (3.3 °L)
0.53 lbs (0.24 kg) Caramunich®
    Type III malt (56 °L)
3.1 AAU Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops
    (30 mins)
    (0.74 oz./21 g of 4.2% alpha acids)
1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops
    (10 mins)
1 tsp. Irish moss
2 packages of White Labs WLP380
    (Hefeweizen IV Ale) or Wyeast 3068
    (Weihenstephan Weizen) yeast 
    (one for primary fermentation, one for
    inoculating Speise)
2 qts. (~2 L) sterile wort
    (for bottle conditioning)

Step by Step
Dough in at 99 °F (37 °C) with about 2 gallons (~7.5 L) of water. This amounts to a 2:1 liquor to grist ratio. Allow for a 30-minute rest to thoroughly hydrate the grist, then bring the grain bed gradually to the mash-out temperature of 145 °F (63 °C) using a hot-water infusion and direct heat. While ramping up, employ a 20-minute protein and beta-glucan rest at 122 °F (50°C). Give the grain bed a 60-minute rest at 145 °F (63 °C) to allow for thorough starch conversion, then recirculate the first runnings until they are clear and sparge while maintaining a stable grain bed temperature. 

The boil lasts 60 minutes with two additions of hops, one for bittering after 30 minutes and one for aroma after 50 minutes. Add the teaspoon of Irish moss immediately after the addition of the aroma hops. After shut down, with a spatula, carefully stir the hot wort in one direction to make it spin. Repeat the spinning several times as the wort motion slows down. About 30 minutes into the whirlpool, draw about 2 quarts (2 L) of hot, sterile wort from the top of the kettle (where there is less trub than below) into a sealable container. Let that wort cool; then store it in the refrigerator during the brew’s primary fermentation. You will need this wort later as a priming agent, called Speise, during bottle conditioning. Continue whirlpooling for another 30 minutes, by which time, plenty of protein-rich trub should have accumulated in the center-bottom of the brew kettle.

Now siphon the clarified wort carefully off the debris and heat exchange it into a clean carboy (or bucket for open fermentation) with the pitched yeast. Aerate the wort and ferment it at a temperature of 68 °F (20 °C) for about four days. The brew should now be at the terminal gravity of FG 1.012 (3°P) and ready for bottle conditioning. On bottling or kegging day, take the Speise out of the refrigerator and let it warm up to room temperature.  Because at home you are dealing with just a single batch, you must inoculate your saved “unpitched” wort before using it as a Speise. Thus, pitch the second package of yeast into your Speise, close the container and shake it vigorously to aerate it. Then pour the Speise into a clean carboy or a Cornelius keg and rack the fully fermented brew into it for a thorough mix. Transfer the inoculated beer into bottles or keep it in the closed Cornelius keg.

Once mixed with Speise, let the beer condition for about one week at a cozy room temperature of 70 °F (21 °C). This will produce the hefeweizen’s spritzy carbonation. Also at this temperature, the flavor of the hefeweizen becomes soft and mellow with mild banana tones starting to emerge next to clove and phenol notes. Then cool-condition the brew for another two weeks at about 45 °F (7 °C), which is also a good serving temperature.

Kelheim Weissbier
(5 gallons/19 L, all extract)
OG = 1.056  FG = 1.012  
IBU = 14  SRM = ~10  ABV = 5.4%

Ingredients
8.2 lbs. (3.7 kg) Weyermann Bavarian
    Hefeweizen liquid malt extract
3.1 AAU Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops
    (30 mins)
    (0.74 oz./21 g of 4.2% alpha acids)
1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops
    (10 mins)
1 tsp. Irish moss
2 packages of White Labs WLP380
    (Hefeweizen IV Ale) or Wyeast 3068
    (Weihenstephan Weizen) yeast 
    (one for primary fermentation, one for
    inoculating Speise)
2 qts. (~2 L) sterile wort or 1.2 cups corn
    sugar (for bottle conditioning)

Step by Step
Bring your brewing liquor (brewing water) to a boil and turn off the heat. Stir half the malt extract into it. Bring this wort to a boil and add the bittering hops. After 15 minutes, shut of the heat and stir in the remaining malt extract. Five minutes later, add the aroma hops and the Irish moss and boil for another 10 minutes. Shut down. Whirlpool for 30 minutes. Next, siphon 2 qts. (~2 L)) of hot wort (for Speise) into a container. Let the wort cool, then seal the container and refrigerate until needed. Chill wort and rack to a clean, sanitized fermenter. Aerate, pitch yeast and ferment at 68 °F (20 °C). Prime with Speise and bottle. Condition at 70 °F (21 °C) for one week, then at 45 °F (7 °C) for two more weeks.

The original American Hefeweizen:
Thomas Jefferson’s “Dunkelhefecornweizen”

Independence Day and beer go together like hand and glove — officially! — not just because a BBQ and a cold beer on the 4th of July are an ideal way to celebrate the country’s birthday, but also because many of the key leaders who forged the new nation of the United States were brewers. For example, Thomas Jefferson, main author of the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the third U.S. president, was a brewer.

The Jeffersonian Brew

Always the revolutionary, the gifted Jefferson came up with a non-conformist brew that might strike the modern homebrewer as odd. A plaque at Monticello explains that the mash he concocted was made not from barley — as were most beers in 18th Century America — but from a mixture of “wheat or corn,” a truly American combination. According to the staff at Monticello, it is not certain if Jefferson made pure corn and pure wheat beers or if he used the two grains in the same mash.

Jefferson learned the craft of brewing from the sea captain Joseph Miller. In a letter to his friend Joseph Coppinger, dated April 25, 1818,  Jefferson says, “I am lately become a brewer for family use, having had the benefit of instruction to one of my people by an English brewer of the first order.”  “One of my people” is Jefferson’s reference to Peter Hemings, Jefferson’s key slave, principal cook and private tailor. Explains a plaque at Monticello: “The most fruitful period of brewing began with the chance appearance of . . . Captain Miller [who] improved upon the quality and quantity of beer produced here. He came to Monticello in 1813 to brew ale, a stronger beer better suited to storage. Miller also trained the enslaved Peter Hemings in the arts of malting and brewing. From this time, Hemings carried on the brewing operations, making one hundred gallons of ale every spring and fall."

Of the quality of Hemings’ brew, Jefferson had this to say (from a letter to his friend Joseph Miller dated March 11, 1817): “ . . . Peter’s brewing of the last season I am in hopes will prove excellent. At least the only cask of it we have tried proves so.”

Reconstructing the Beer

Though obsessed with precision in his legal and scientific studies, surprisingly, Jefferson was no stickler for exactitude in brewing ingredients and processes. In fact, Jefferson did not even believe in stipulating recipes because he did not believe that “the operations of malting and brewing could be successfully performed from a receipt.”

I have composed a Jeffersonian brew with both of his favorite mash malts, corn and wheat. We know from Jefferson’s own notations that his wheat and corn were malted by first steeping them in water and then draining them for germination. Jefferson’s beer was probably also a darkish brew, because his grain was “dried” (today we call this process kilning) and even roasted. A plaque at Monticello reads: “The heat and duration of the roasting ultimately determined the darkness of the beer.”

Jefferson boiled his wort with hops. As we learn from the Monticello inscriptions, he used about three-quarters of a pound (340 g) of hops per bushel of grain (40 lbs./18.2 kg). For a grain bill of 7.5 lbs. (3.4 kg), therefore, we would need 2.25 oz. (64 grams) of Jefferson’s hops. He grew hops in his own garden at Monticello, though we do not know which variety, nor do we know its alpha-acid content. I chose Cluster, which was one of the most common hop varieties in early America.

Fermentation, according to a plaque, took “several weeks.” The brew was then racked into cork-stoppered “stone ware” or glass bottles. The tools and workbench used for corking beer and securing the stoppers with string to the bottles are shown in the Monticello basement. Fragments of “stone ware” bottles as well as a metal spigot for filling bottles from the wooden casks have been unearthed as well. As a safeguard against bottles bursting from overpressure and thus turning chards into dangerous shrapnel, the bottles were kept in wooden crates or casks filled with straw or sand.

Thomas Jefferson’s
Dunkelhefecornweizen
(5 gallons/19 L, all grain)
OG = 1.047  FG = 1.010  
IBU =  30  SRM = 17   ABV = 4.8%

Ingredients
4.2 lbs. (1.9 kg) Weyermann dark
    wheat malt (approx. 7°L)
3.9 lbs. (1.8 kg) Briess pregelatinized
    flaked corn (0.8 °L)
1.6 lbs. (0.74 kg) Weyermann
    Carawheat® (approx. 45°L)
2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) rice hulls
1/4 tsp (1.5 g) Convertase MG-300
    gluco-amylase enzyme formula
8.2 AAU Cluster hops (bittering)
    (1.2 oz./34 g of 6.8% alpha acid)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White
    Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
1 cup DME (for priming)

Step by Step
Mill the malted wheat (but not the  corn or rice hulls). Add the enzyme preparation to the base water and mash at about 152 °F (67 °C). For better amylase action and improved lautering, make the mash as thin as possible. Use at least 3–4 gallons (11–15 L) of mash water, if your tun can hold that much. Allow for a 60-minute saccharification rest. Then raise the temperature to 170 °F (77 °C) for the mash-out. Lauter and sparge. Boil the wort for 90 minutes. Add all the hops about 30 minutes into the boil. At the end of the boil, check the gravity and adjust for evaporation losses. Let the wort rest for about 30 minutes to allow the trub to settle. Siphon the wort off the trub and heat exchange to a temperature of about 68 °F (20 °C). Aerate the wort thoroughly, pitch the yeast, and primary-ferment for about a week. Rack and secondary-ferment for another two weeks. Rack again, add the priming agent, and condition in bottles or a keg for another week.