Summer Beers

What with the warmer months coming on, I'm trying to plan ahead and have some appropriate beers for the warmer months. While I'm sure to always have your basic amber/red ales handy, as they're pretty much good all year round, I'm keeping in mind the weather when I make my selections at my local homebrew shop.

I mentioned in my last beer-related blog my American Ale. It's a nice, all-purpose beer that's refreshing and goes well with food. This weekend, I wanted to pick up two kits for this month, and as I plan on making them back to back, I want to save some money by reusing the yeast on the second batch. (Yeast is usually around $5). Of course, I'd need to make two kinds of beers that use the same yeast.

I went with the German Hefeweizen. I'm using a different yeast than the last time I made it, and I think that this one is going to be a little more authentic than my first batch. (It'll have more of that banana-smell to it, in other words.) As my second beer, I noticed that More Beer had a new kit - a Dunkelweizen! For those of you who don't know, it's basically a dark Hefeweizen. Very refreshing with a little bit more body and character to it. I've only had a few of these before, and they're really nice when done right.

Of course, I doubt that I'll ever be able to duplicate that awesome Hefeweizen that I had when I was in Nuremberg. Gutman was the name of the brewery, I believe, and I'm pretty sure that they don't bottle their stuff, and they definitely don't export it. That was awesome, and I had two big glasses with my lunch. (Normally, I don't like to have more than one if I still have a lot of stuff to see and do that day - this stuff just tasted too damn good to say no to a second.)

So, the Hefeweizen should be ready in about three weeks (unlike a lot of beers, it's not necessary to age it out - it's almost better to have it as fresh as possible). Give it another two for the Dunkel. The Hefe is sitting in the closet right now, fermenting rather violently.

Perhaps I might even feel a little less antisocial when summer rolls around and I'll invite some folks over for brats and beers. Should be fun.