KB_S1 wrote on Sun, 29 June 2008 11:36 |
Thomas,
what would you recommend for a wheat beer? I would like to try something that is from a small independant.
Another couple that may be of interest to all.
Innis & Gunn, it is stored in whisky barrels to give a very strong aromatic taste. A bit syrupy to have more than 3 or 4 of the small bottles.
Fraoch, a heather ale. Very different again but very nice, especially after a meal.
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If you're into Innis & Gunn there's this Scottish beer called Paradox, they put it on something like twelve different types of barrels so you can find several differently labeled bottles with various tastes like that.
In the US they tend to use fresh bourbon barrels for beers, and they give you tannins as well as vanilla notes. On the right beer it can be awesome. A friend of mine in Belgium uses used barrels from Bordeaux, Calvados and Chateau Neuf Du Pape but let's not even go there... It's stunning.
One should be aware of the different in style comparing wheat beers from Belgium (wit) and Germany (weiss).
In Belgium they tend to throw in curacao peel and coriander as well as having a different (don't they always!) type of yeast stand. The peel gives the slight bitter note, the coriander gives a hint of citrus and the yeast gives you the esters (for instance isoamyl that tastes like banana kinda).
Hoegaarden may be owned by the big evil company InBev, but it's actually not too bad.
If you like that type of beer there are some even better ones:
Caracole is a very small brewery that makes a wit beer called Troublette. It may be the best wit beer in Belgium right now.
St. Bernardus Wit is very close to Hoegaarden in taste but better. The recipe was actually from Pierre Celis who founded Hoegaarden, so it's probably closer to the old version of Hoegaarden before they started watering it down. The brewery is a family brewery that is not very big.
Bellevaux is a brand new micro brewery in the Ardennes that bought a top notch mega modern brew kit but insist on making old style beer. They are tremendous. Their Bellevaux Blanche is huge on coriander without going overboard, it's god ridiculous amounts of yeast sediment left and it's veeeery fresh tasting.
Steendonk is a co-op between Moortgat Duvel and Palm, and somehow I like it. It's close to the Hoegaarden in taste but some kinda nutty note (as in the nut, not weird).
Ellezelloise Saisis is a wit beer that does not use spices but instead tries to extract similar tastes from the yeast strands. The brewery is one of my all time fave's, it used to be a one-man-brewery but now it's a one-man-and-his-wife brewery. It's very rich and full in taste. It is a very small brewery.
Cheers!