Franconian Beer Message Board

Weizen
Posted by FredW on 2017-08-24 11:19:24
Back in 2003 (or so) Christian Merz told me that he made the wort for the Spezial Weizenbier and it was sent off to a friend of his to be fermented. I think the brewery was Schneider in Essing but I am not 100% sure on that.

Sometime after that (but still probably 10 years or so ago) Matthias Trum told me they sent their Rauchmalz off to a brewery in Oberbayern who brewed the Weizen. It could have been Ingolstadt but we were also talking about where they got their yeast and that might have been Ingolstadt.

Take this for what it is worth.

I don't think the Weizen is a blend because while wheat beers must be at last 50% wheat malt, they usually are not a lot higher than that because wheat malt does not have a husk and the barley husk is important in the mashing process (keeps you from stuck mashes). If you took at 60% weizen and blended with a 0% lager you'd get 30% wheat which would be a no-no.

I remember reading one reason most (large brewery) Weizens were above 50% was that the fermation yeast was filtered out before bottling then they beer was kräusened with a lager yeast that was more stable for distribution. The lager wort had to be 100% barley so they needed the wheat malt to be above 50% to keep the final bottled beer above 50% what.

All this old information and German laws/practises may have changed in the past 15 years or so...