At Thornbridge Brewery, we brewers come with a variety of experience and training. Here, Production Director and head of Electrical Engineering, Rob Lovatt, explains his passion for the beers of Germany and how he set about designing one of our new beers – a genuine Bavarian-style Hefeweizen:
After spending the last eight months settling in at Thornbridge, I finally got round to brewing a beer style close to my heart – Weissbier. In the early years of my brewing career, I had numerous trips to Bavaria with Meantime Brewing Company and was absolutely blown away with this particular style. Every time I’ve brewed wheat beer, I’ve always endeavoured to recreate those awesome bubblegum, banana and clove flavours I first encountered all those years ago.
Wheat beer is notoriously difficult to produce as it can so easily become infected, due to relatively high fermentation temperatures, which, combined with low bitterness rates and autolysis of the yeast, can result in a nutrient boost for any latent bacteria which may have survived through to the finished product. In addition, the high percentage of wheat malt in the grist can result in the lauter being particular troublesome.
There are many beer styles which don’t really suit cask dispense, and Hefeweizen is definitely one of them. It is my belief that serving Bavarian-style wheat beer from a cask is a big ‘no-no’ and shows a complete lack of understanding and appreciation of the style. Although I love cask beer, I think we are somewhat limited in the beer styles we can showcase in the cask format. We have therefore decided to package the whole brew in keykegs and bottles. We were fortunate that Jamie Hawksworth from Pivovar, operator of the Sheffield and Euston Taps, agreed to get involved as he is a good friend of ours. We involved him right from the start – Caolan (Thornbridge Production Manager) and I spent an evening at the Sheffield Tap tasting a range of Hefeweizens to decide on the attributes for which we were looking. He also came down for the brewday, but couldn’t quite make the full 12 hour day, thanks to a predictably difficult lauter!
After 5 or so litres of various wheat beers we decided on a burnt orange colour and an relatively low hopping rate – around 15EBUS. The grist was going to be 50% wheat malt imported from the Bamberger Malzerei, with pale ale malt, cara hell and pale crystal. Bamberger Malzerei was my first choice for malt after spending time with Braukon Brewery Engineers in Germany. Some of the best beers I tasted with them used this Malster. On the hops front, for this style, the bitterness needs to be barely perceptible, so we went for Tettnanger, a fine noble hop with a mild aroma..
We wanted a medium body to the beer, which was a little bit of challenge as the brew kit here is not really set up for decoction, so we started with a 43°C step, then gambled on a 66/67°C step before going up to 72°C. What we really wanted more than anything was masses of banana and bubblegum and clove. Any brewer worth his salt will strive for these flavours when making a Hefeweizen, a biproduct of yeast metabolism as fermentation progresses. The unique flavour of Bavarian-style wheat beer comes from fusel alcohols, esters, phenols as well as other compounds. One of the main flavours is a compound know as 4 vinyl-guaiacol. which can be described as clove-like. To succeed it requires as much wheat malt in the grist as possible and a 43°C rest prior to the main saccharification rest, to release the Ferrulic acid from the wheat malt, which is the precursor for 4-V-G.
Other important flavour compounds in Hefeweizens are esters, such as Iso-amylacetate which can be described as banana or bubblegum-like. It is actually added in the commercial manufacture of Bubblegum in a chemical format. With Hefeweizens it is produced naturally, a delightful characteristic of the enigmatic Bavarian wheat beer yeast.
The level of esters can be increased in numerous ways, one of which is adopting an open fermentation. This I can most certainly vouch for. Indeed, Schneider Weisse Brewery have gone the full monty and chopped the tops off their cylindro-conicals, something I would love to do here at the Riverside but I don’t think my boss would be too appreciative! It is also possible to under-pitch the yeast and play around with oxygenation levels, which we did to some extent with this brew.
I have to say we’re all really happy with the beer overall. It has lashings of banana, bubble gum and clove, has a great mouthfeel and is thankfully bacteria free! We also managed to Krausen it for lots of natural carbonation, producing smaller and gentler CO2 bubbles which come out of solution more slowly – a method eminently superior to forced carbonation. We also pushed the CO2 to around 3 volumes, typical for this style and a fairly good reason not to serve it from cask!
One final point:- Proper Hefeweizens need to be drunk fresh before the esters start to diminish, which is why we’ll be getting it out to you ASAP. So if you’re fortunate enough to get your hands on a bottle, don’t even think of ageing it – Get it drunk!
Rob sampling a small sample (2 litres) of Versa
Versa will be launched at the Sheffield Tap, Platform 1, Sheffield Railway Station on Thursday June 3oth, at 7.30pm. I can safely say the Brewery team will be there, drinking responsibly (as usual), and we would be delighted if you all came too and gave us your thoughts.
So as a weizen lover Dom, where can I get my hands on it?
I suspect the rapscallions at Port Street will be getting some in, so quite possibly there! The Euston Tap and the Sheffield Tap will both be serving it too. Many other places but I’m not totally sure. I’ll let you know!
Sampled it at the Grove in Huddersfield. Nectar
Having recently returned from a German holiday, during which I visited both Bamberg and Tettnang, and tasted some absolutely knockout local beers in both towns, I just have to try this beer!
Is there any chance that some of the production run might make it anywhere near where I’m based, over in Warrington? (eg Liverpool, Chester or even Warrington itself).