Book Review: Brewing With Wheat by Stan Hieronymus
Receiving free beer every now and again is pretty damn cool, but this is the first time I’ve received beer-related literature to review.
In reading Brewing with Wheat by Stan Hieronymus, I struggled with my note taking. I mean, how was I supposed to note the color of the pages or the aroma that wafted from the paperback? And you can forget about mouthfeel. Ugh.
In all seriousness, however, this book may have been a bit over my head. While I’ve sat in on a couple of home brewing sessions, I am far from what you would call knowledgeable on brewing details. Much of the technical material in the book was a bit lost on me. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the back history to brewing with wheat and the many styles that existed and still thrive today — especially how it relates to the U.S. craft beer scene.
There’s a ton of research put into this book that’s been broken down into the following sections.
Part I: Wheat, The Other Brewing Grain
The first section of the book focuses on the origins of wheat in brewing and the effect that the Reinheisgebot (in 1516) has had on the grain. What I found particularly interesting was the explanation of why wheat beers tend to be cloudy. I had always presumed it was suspended yeast (and that can be the case in some products), but mostly it’s due to the higher amount of protein that wheat has over barley.
Part II: The White Beers of Belgium
Man, I never realized that there were so many varieties of beer that used wheat. This section details the various styles, the impact of Pierre Celis and even what effect Coors’ Blue Moon has had on wheat beer popularity in the U.S.
Part III: The Weiss Beers of Southern Germany
I didn’t point it out earlier, but in each section, Stan outlines a few basic recipes of some of the beers that are referenced throughout the book. I only mention this because Schneider Aventinus, one of my favorite brews (and subsequent recipe), is mentioned in this section. Schneider and several other brewers were interviewed for the section, sharing their own opinions of brewing with wheat.
Part IV: The Wheat Beers of America
Living in the U.S., this was obviously the section I was most anticipating. The story behind Widmer Brothers’ Hefeweizen was quite interesting. The history of the various American styles that came from brewing with wheat was informative as was the history of wheat wine and it’s creation by Rubicon Brewing in 1988. It’s a wonder I’ve only recently been seeing this particular style of beer show up on store shelves 20 years later.
Part V: Wheat Beers from the Past
For those looking to brew something that most folks haven’t touched in many years, this section provides recipes for four resurrected wheat styles: Traditional Berliner Weisse, Gose, Lichtenhainer and Gratzer.
Part VI: Putting It All Together
The final, and shortest, section of the book could very well be the most fun. Essentially, it’s a list of everything you should be aware of when brewing, tasting or judging a wheat beer — covering just about every style (flaws and misconceptions included). I think I’ll need to run to the store tonight and start practicing.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I haven’t read any of Stan’s previous writing (aside from his blog), so I can’t compare it to those, but from a first-timer’s point of view the book has a good flow to it and is quite informative. As a side note, in the hopes of having another point of view (that of a home brewer), I’ve passed the book along to my father-in-law who’s beer knowledge far surpasses may own ten fold.