Weiss Guy

Finally tasted the Hefeweizen tonight. The Westchester homebrewers are meeting tomorrow and I thought I'd give it a sip to see whether it could be shared with other, um, amateurs. It would seem that it is. Color is a fair bit darker than I would expect for a light Hef. It heads quite a ways into Dunkel territory. Can't blame me for that. I'll just have to see what other wheat extracts are out there. Having said (or typed) that, the kit had nothing but wheat extract (or so they say). Fairly sure that Bavarian Hefeweizen has a decent amount of light barley malt. That could be confirmed with a quick glance at one of several books on my shelf.

Anyhoo. Color is a bit dark, but still rather pretty. Not nearly enough foam, but I had expected that. The fermentation hadn't gone all that well, so I was prepared for an anemic head. Still, I've brewed worse. I got about a quarter inch of suds, which means it did better than a bitters. Quite a lot of bubbles in the glass, which was a nice surprise. Taste was not that bad at all. Something a bit off in the aftertaste and the nose, but nothing that makes it seem poisonous or fetid or anything dreadful. Really just a tiny bit of something-or-other that shouldn't ought to be there, but doesn't upset things all that much.

I poured it alongside Magic Hat's "Circus Boy" and Smuttynose's Summer Weizen Ale. Truth be told, I'd likely be just as happy with a glass of mine as either of those. OK, that's stacking the deck a bit; the Smuttynose is fairly dreadful. Still, it's good to know that the homebrew for which I had rather low expectations could hold its own against something store bought. I'll grab some Schneider for a proper comparison.