Hidatakayama Weizen is a German hefeweizen that is a regular 5% beer from Hida Takayama Beer. It is available in both bottle and can form through their website site and also came highly recommended from Hiro, thanks YET again! Hida Takayama ramp up this beer by using 50% wheat in the mash along with regular pilsner malt to take the flavour over and above what is expected of a weizen beer.
Wheat at 50% and wheat yeast. Why not go 100%?
Hidatakayama Weizen Aroma and Taste
Weizens don’t come more potent than this one it seems. 50% wheat WITH wheat yeast left me thinking why not go the whole way and make it 100%? Well besides the beer not taking, that’s by the by yet Hidatakayama Weizen was pure weizen and proud of it. It poured out a hazy golden colour with minimal head – strange for a weizen in my experience. The head reduced to about a finger’s worth whilst drinking and stayed that way until the end. The aroma though. The aroma was pure weizen and beautiful. Bananas, cloves along with some soapy wheat that alluded to some herbal punch of coriander.
Yet the body is where it’s at. Hidatakayama Weizen had the softest, most beautiful first draw to a beer that I can remember. Smoother than a silky stout yet more soothing than a barley wine. The creamy banana-esque levels of fruit are neither overpowering nor oversweet and are reminiscent of some homemade milkshake with full fat cream and fresh bananas. The only downside to Hidatakayama Weizen is that the body needs to be fuller as it seemed a tad thin to handle everything going on in it.
Hidatakayama Weizen One Line Review
Hidatakayama Weizen is, hands down, one of the best weizens I’ve had and would be a great way to convince someone to drink weizens.. I am.
Where to Buy Hidatakayama Weizen
Hidatakayama Weizen can be bought from the Hida Takayama online store here. A search on Rakuten also bought it up in the results here.
2 comments
Most weizens these days are between 40-60% wheat. the rest pislner or munich, usually. Wheat, like rye has no husks and is a bitch to lauter or sparge.
Personally I think Hidatakayama, along with Nagahama, has a distinct house infection flavour in there. I say infection not in the sense that the beer is ruined or bad. I mean in the sense that maybe there is some wild yeast in the air as Nagahama has that distinct taste not just in its ale, but its weizen and it’s lager, three different yeasts. That flavour is getting in there either from the system or from the air. The same with hidatakayama, IMO. The karumina strong Belgian ale probably being their best beer but all their beers have that Belgian like quality to them. I’d hazard a guess as to a wild yeast getting in there.
Personally, I am not a big fan of the hidatakayama weizen, due to that strange flavor. You seem to have picked up on it as soapy and a herbal punch.
I love weizens and have drunk my fare share. I’ll try this one again, seeing as both yourself and Hiro like it. It might have cleaned up. I think they’ve have revamped their brewery set up. Last time I was in Takayama, i tried the complete range and just kept tasting that house flavour every time, across the board.