American Slant

Is it just me, or does this article make too much of a big deal out of American Hefeweizen? I consider myself a fan of the genre, as it were, and find American takes disgusting. Obviously such POV can't make it into an article, but I'd like to see much more attention being focused on the true origin of this wonderful beer. Perhaps some of the English inclined folks from de.wikipedia can help. I'm still a novice German speaker/reader, so I don't think me reading their page on it would help much. Ncsupimaster 02:35, 18 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I could care less about American Hefeweizen. Make a seperate article, this is about Hefe in general. I'd like to add Granville Island Breweries to the list, but lo and behold, it's a list of American brands, and GIB is Canadian. Go figure. Jackmont, Oct 5, 06

though most American hefeweizen does not have near the wheat, as opposed to barley as in Bavaria.

Hefeweizen is German for "yeast wheat". "Weiß" is German for "white", so this seems to translate to "white beer". It is, however, not lighter in color than other beer. The term weiß has its origin in the white colour of the foam that arises during the top-fermented brewing process. Although often assumed, the term weiß has nothing to do with Weizen (wheat). The term is used in the old parts of Bavaria. : "Hefe" is the German word for yeast. The prefix is added to indicate that the beer is bottle-conditioned and sedimented.

As I was responsible for most of the contents on this original article, I would like to clarify some of these paragraphs in question, and would like some more feedback before I put this information back on the main article. First of all wheat beers I am aware of contain both barley and wheat malt. American hefeweizen typically (though not always) contains much less wheat malt in ratio to that of their Bavarian counterparts. (Widmer Hefeweizen is about 1/3 wheat to 2/3 barley. A typical German hefeweizen will range anywhere from %50-75%. I am not aware of any using strictly wheat malt. (The Georg Schneider Brauerei makes a beer called Weizen Edel-Weisse which is USDA certified organic, and therefore gives a list of the ingredients right on the bottle, and it does contain barley malt, after wheat malt).

As far as the quote about the name, as a student of German, I found it contridictory that dark hefeweizens are often labled Hefewisse Dunkel, or literally "yeast white dark", believing the "weisse" to be a reference to the color of the beer, and later found it to be refering to the color of the head instead. Hefewizen and Hefewisse both translate differently but refer to the same style of beer. Alot of this is what I have gathered from other beer geeks, and this has been the consensus of everyone I know who has any knowlege of the subject, and much of this information is available on immitation recipe sites, and the German breweries are usually very spicific as to their ingredients via the Reinheitsgebot.

So I do not know why the second paragraph is confusing, it was an attempt to explain the varient names given to the same style of beer. I'd like to know what you all think, please post it on my user page or send me an e-mail.--Dionysus83 02:16, 10 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

though most American hefeweizen does not have near the wheat, as opposed to barley as in Bavaria.

What is this supposed to mean? The phrase "near the wheat" doesn't make any sense. Does the sentence mean that the wheat-to-barley ratio is higher in Bavarian hefeweizen than U.S. hefeweizen? Michael Kinyon 14:04, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hefeweizen is German for "yeast wheat". "Weiß" is German for "white", so this seems to translate to "white beer". It is, however, not lighter in color than other beer. The term weiß has its origin in the white colour of the foam that arises during the top-fermented brewing process. Although often assumed, the term weiß has nothing to do with Weizen (wheat). The term is used in the old parts of Bavaria. : "Hefe" is the German word for yeast. The prefix is added to indicate that the beer is bottle-conditioned and sedimented.

This paragraph directly contradicts itself, and left me far more confused as to the meaning of 'hefeweizen' than I was before I read it.

Recent edits to this page look pretty good. I still don't know what the slightly revised wheat-barley sentence means (see above), but there are definitely some overall improvements. --Michael Kinyon 13:41, 21 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think the original author meant to say the wort used to brew hefeweizen contains, in the case of American-brewed hefeweizens, some barley malt, as opposed to the original German hefeweizens which are brewed with 100% wheat malt. I actually don't know that this claim is accurate; I'm almost positive German hefeweizen is 100% wheat malt by tradition, but I'd never before heard that American breweries use a mix. Maybe I'll do a little research.--Caliga10 01:21, 8 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bavarian law dictates that any Hefeweizen produced in Bavaria must contain at least 51% malted wheat and the remainder is malted barley. This is the ratio that breweries such as Paulaner, Hofbrau and nearly all other German brewers are using.

I brew and drink hefeweizen style beers and I am kind of annoyed at the focus on mostly medicore american wheat beers that are often not even true to the original german beer style, often deviating significantly in several areas (omitting the banana-clove aroma profile for example). IMO, this page needs to remove the american wheat beers entirely and focus only on German Hefeweizen- Paulaner, Schneider-Weisse, Hacker-Pschorr, Franziskaner,Weihanstephaner, etc that are good examples of the proper hefeweizen style of beer. Beerslurpy 02:57, 31 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, Beerslurpy, for listing most of my favorites. Makes me feel like my beerpinions are valid! Ncsupimaster 04:19, 31 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have begun the slow process of fixing this page. For now I have merely removed the enormous list of American Pale Ales and American Wheat Ales that were misleadingly labeled as Hefeweizen. I will have to go in and remove obviously untrue statements like "Hefewizen is the most popular wheat beer style in america"- most americans have never tasted hefeweizen, even when it was labeled as such. My bet would be that American Lager would be the most popular due to the sheer volume of Bud/Miller/Coors that people drink.

I have to go to sleep now, but I will amend this page to be consistent with the BJCP guidelines for the Hefeweizen style (15A mostly, but maybe mentions of the other variants such as Rogenbier, Weizenbock and Dunkelweizen). Beerslurpy 05:48, 31 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, its nice to know that the American Hefeweizens exist, and I'm glad someone said how they differ, but they still seem like the major focus of this page, when they are really not a major phenomenon. Real Hefeweizens are found all over Europe, for example, the Italians & Spanish love them, but American Hefeweizens are really only a regional phenomenon in the states. JeffBurdges 22:59, 22 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with all the previous comments that this article is too American-centric. So, I have removed those parts. If someone feels this information is somewhere necessary, why not put it on the American beer page? After all, that's what it is. Mikebe 13:29, 10 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]