Brewing a "wheat" beer without any wheat

[incutrav]

A local brewery recently made two "wheat" beers, one with 100% 2 row, and a hefe yeast, and the other was 40% wheat with the same yeast. Everyone was in agreeence that the "wheat" brewed with no actual wheat was better. No way you would be able to tell that no wheat was used. Obvisouly the yeast strain has a lot more to do with that hefe flavor then the actual wheat does. Im thinking of brewing up a batch, Has anyone tried this before?

 

[bknifefight]

I have used hefe and belgian wit yeasts in all barley beer and it was good. I disagree that there is no way you can tell the difference but that doesn't mean you won't make a good beer.

 

[NCBeernut]

I am with bknifefight on this one. You can definitely make a good beer with a hefe yeast, but wheat does have a few distinct qualities. I absolutely disagree that nobody could tell the difference. I would take that challenge.

 

[incutrav]

Ill rephrase it. The beer they brewed with no wheat tasted and smelled much more like a hefe then the version that was brewed with wheat. So there was an obvious difference. Out of the ten people that tried it when i was there, every person guessed the 'true' hefe was the 100% barley beer. Not to say some people wouldnt be able to get it right.

 

[alecoholic]

Too much wheat in a beer tastes like stale bread (but not in a bad way, just all I can think of to explain the flavor). Try using california ale yeast and you'll notice the difference. The phenolics in the hefe yeast are covering up the wheat flavor and yes most of the character in a hefeweizen comes from the hefe not the weizen.

 

[pjj2ba]

Saison = mostly pilsner malt
Wit = a bunch of wheat and some pils malt (spices too)

I find the yeast characters of the two fairly similar, with the flavor differences being due to the grain bill in terms of the base flavors. Many traditional saisons are not spiced.