East End Brewing WheatFest April 13th

WheatFest 2012 – Hits full stride on April 13th!

About this time of year, we turn our sights to brewing something special for Spring, and that usually means something with a good bit of Wheat in the mash. "Wheat Beer" is a pretty broad and misleading term. Nearly everything we brew has some amount of wheat in it, as it’s an excellent way to increase head retention on a beer. But foam aside, we generally don’t refer to a beer as a "Wheat Beer" unless it’s got about 50% Wheat in the Grain Bill. (That’s the grain portion of the recipe.)

While some may say "I don’t like Wheat Beer", what they probably mean is that they either don’t like a poorly made wheat beer, or that they don’t like a particular Style of Wheat Beer… like say, a Hefeweizen. I say this because the flavor contribution of the actual wheat in a Wheat Beer is really pretty subtle, and often overshadowed by anything from the yeast strain that’s used (as in a German Style Hefeweizen like our Monkey Boy), the spices that may be added (in the case of a Belgian Style Witte Beer like our East End Witte), or even the Hops that are selected (as in a Hoppy American Wheat Beer like our Wheat Hop). The dominant flavor can even come from the massive quantity of malted wheat and barley that are used in a beer like our Weizenbock, Monkey’s Uncle… which by the way, we sadly do not have the capacity to brew this time around.

Part of what we try to do each Spring by brewing a bunch of Wheat-based beers in a group like this is to hopefully break some of the pre-concieved notions of what Wheat Beer is, and offer a little bit of education about what Wheat Beer can be.

So starting on the weekend of April 13th, WELCOME TO WHEATFEST at the Brewery! We’ll have a total of 4 different wheat-based beers on tap for you to taste side-by-side-by-side, and of course take home in Growler form: