What makes a hefeweizen go bad?
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 1:44 pm
I live in an area of the country where we have distributors who don't care at all about freshness or ensuring beer is kept fresh or cold.
I just moved here last summer, and fortunately am moving to california this upcoming June. I can only hope the situation is better at that time.
Whether it's 6 month old Paulaner, 2 month old SN Kellerweis, 3 month old Weihenstephan, it's very rare I find a hefeweizen that not only has the banana and clove flavors intact, but also doesn't have an odd off flavor as well.
What am I tasting exactly? It's not skunkiness, and it's not outright gross, but almost like the beer is stale. Is it oxidization? That seems odd considering I don't get this from other beer styles of this age. I'm curious to the mechanisms behind this problem.
I just moved here last summer, and fortunately am moving to california this upcoming June. I can only hope the situation is better at that time.
Whether it's 6 month old Paulaner, 2 month old SN Kellerweis, 3 month old Weihenstephan, it's very rare I find a hefeweizen that not only has the banana and clove flavors intact, but also doesn't have an odd off flavor as well.
What am I tasting exactly? It's not skunkiness, and it's not outright gross, but almost like the beer is stale. Is it oxidization? That seems odd considering I don't get this from other beer styles of this age. I'm curious to the mechanisms behind this problem.