One question I get asked a lot is “what’s the deal with the layer of yeast at the bottom of your wheat beers?” When I tell people “that’s where the good stuff is” I always get a confused look in return. This got me thinking that with the release of this year’s Roggen Weizen and for the amount of other German Wheat Beers we make here at Steel & Oak it’s probably time to write a blog post on Rousing Yeast in German Wheat Beers.
Believe it or not some beers are meant to be hazy. These include our Seasonal Wheat Beers – Smoked Hefeweizen, Roggen Weizen and Smoked Dunkelweizen, along with our Limited Release Weizenbock. The haziness comes from yeast and proteins within the malt, wheat and rye with which it’s brewed. After a beer sits for a short while the yeast settles out at the bottom of the bottle and we want that yeasty goodness back in suspension as it adds to the flavour and mouthfeel of those wheat favourites.
Lucky for you we have the 2nd Best Hand Model in New West along with the 4th Best iPhone Photographer available at our brewery to create a photo series on how we recommend you rouse the yeast in your Steel & Oak weizen.
We prefer the tilt and twist method at Steel & Oak but you can use any rousing technique you’d like to try. Just don’t over agitate the bottle as you don’t want a “Pop Champagne” type of situation.
Cheers to wheat beers!
– Jorden
