Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Schneider Weisse - Kristall & Original





I picked up two Schneiders recently. One I had not tried yet (or so I thought). First up was Schneider Weisse - Kristall. I am assuming it is called Kristall because it is clear.
This was interesting, very light in the mouth almost like its Champagne counterpart.
Strangely my wife was not too impressed. I myself prefer a more traditional wheat beer. The one word that best describes this beer is delicate.

sight - Clear yellow, large white head.
smell - Banana, little spice.
taste - Wheaty, spicy, banana
sweet - 2/5
bitter - 2/5


Now here was a shocker. There was not supposed to be a second tasting. I only grabbed the Schneider original just to have a normal Heffe handy. I was sure I had tried this before. When my wife decided she wanted a beer I had no problem telling her to take the Schneider. Then she poured it and I realised I had never had this. It was dark almost like a dunkelweizen.
It is not a dunkelweizen though.

I have to say that I enjoyed this a lot, well the few mouthfuls I got as my wife also loved it and was ready to do injury to my hand to keep it away.
Unlike the delicate nature of the Kristall, this was so much fuller that it was almost chewy. It was more bitter than the kristall too with more hop character.

sight - Dark brown, little to no head.
smell - Faint Banana, plenty of spice, not much though.
taste - Spicy and spice lingers, malty, lovely!
sweet - 2/5
bitter - 3/5

One point I will make is that the Original was very cold so there may have been more aroma and perhaps something in the taste that was missed. I am also surprised by the lack of head, perhaps my wife was too careful when pouring. Out of the two I certainly would prefer the original over the kristall.

On the subject of wheat beers, I picked up a case (12) of Schöfferhofer at Aldi today. Perfect for the warm summer evenings of late.
Also my mash tun arrived yesterday along with my extra grain (wheat and barley). My next beer will be an All grain wheat beer and I am also planning a Dry Irish stout. Only for the fact I do not have enough bottles, I would have started my next batch yesterday. Perhaps at the weekend if I formulate a recipe.
Posted by TaleOfAle at 3:24 PM
Labels: , ,

6 comments:

  1. That Schneider is a lot darker than I recall. It's a great beer though. Schöfferhofer is a great one too, and perfect for hot weather.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Schneider is indeed a lovely beer, although I much prefer hefeweizens in general to their kristall versions. On the home brewing front, is this the very same person who described all grain as too much of a faff now going and getting a mash tun?? ;)
    ReplyDelete
  3. I do like Schneider and if one of the few commercial hefes that bottle with the primary yeast and not a lager!
    ReplyDelete
  4. Darker huh? This warrants further investigation involving a few more bottles then.
    ReplyDelete
  5. Schneider Weisse Kristall is my favourite beer. I'm fairly new to homebrewing (about to start my 10th batch) and am wondering if anyone can give me any advice as to how to make something like a Schneider Weisse Kristall. From the little knowledge I have so far, this is what I was going to try (for a 23L batch):
    ~ 2kg wheat malt (grain)
    ~ 500g honey. Any particular type?
    ~ 500g corn syrup to sweeten it up and improve the head?
    - High quality wheat beer yeast (does this really make much difference? I'm sceptical)
    - Hops... Any suggestions? I've only used Centennial hops in my brews so far, but they seem to have a very different character to those used in the Schneider Weisse Kristall.
    - Spices... Any suggestions? I've tried ground coriander seeds, orange zest and mandarin zest in previous batches, but not sure how much difference it actually made.
    - Filtering... How can I get it so clear like Schneider do? I've tried decanting from one fermenter to another before bottling and this removed some of the sediment, but not nearly enough. Is it possible to filter beer too well? (that is, filter out all of the yeast so that no fermentation occurs in the bottle leading to a flat beer)

    Any advice would be appreciated!
    ReplyDelete
  6. I am not sure why you would want to make a krystal clone, its like trying to brew a non alcoholic beer. Firstly yeast does make a difference, that is where beer and especially a Weisse gets most of its flavour. Spices? You are not making a Belgian style witbier, German beers do not add spices, except maybe at Christmas. It is all yeast derived. If you want to filter, use an actual filter. A coffee filter should work, I would dip it in starsan or another no rinse solution to be safe, that said if you filter out the yeast you can not carbonate the beer naturally and unless you have a bottling plant handy and can force carbonate then you will be out of luck. I suppose one thing you could try is a dual fermentation. Use a standard German weisse yeast and then when that is done, use another yeast to clear it. Perhaps in the case of krystal a champaign yeast? I do not know for certain as I have no inclination to try it out myself. At the end of the day, the best way to clear your beer is to let it sit in the cold for a while. This drops the yeast out of suspension to the bottom and some careful pouring will ensure the yeast stays at the bottom and the beer is clear.
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)