Beer : Health and Nutrition

76 Chapter Three
Table 3.10 Alcohol content of a range of wheat beers.
Brand Alcohol (% w/w)
Shiner Winter Ale 4.09
Shiner Hefeweizen 4.12
Pete’s Honey Wheat 3.84
Half Ton Hefeweizen 4.20
Hefeweizen 4.28
Eramosa Honey Wheat 3.40
Celis White 3.03
Penn Weizen 4.38
Weizen Bock 6.51
Ramstien Kristall Wheat Beer 3.33
Classic Wheat Beer 4.53
Hefeweizen 4.88
Hefe-Weizen 4.21
Hefeweizen 3.78
Hefe Weizen 3.57
Wheat Beer 3.47
Whistlepin Wheat Ale 4.11
Kristall Weizen 4.05
Wheat Beer 3.65
Bert Grant’s Hefeweizen 3.64
Ramstein Blonde Wheat Beer 4.88
Hefeweizen 3.90
Jack Whacker Wheat Ale 3.79
Honey Weiss Bier 3.67
Sunshine Wheat Bear 3.51
Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse 3.95
Paulaner Hefe-Weizen 4.43
Sources: Most of the data in this table is reproduced courtesy of Carlos Alvarez & Jaime Jurado (Gambrinus).
The data was originally published by Jurado in a series of articles in The Brewer International. Most of the
remaining information is from http://brewery.org/brewery/library/AlClbinger.html.
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is produced molecule for molecule alongside ethanol during the fermentation
of glucose by Saccharomyces cerevisiae:
yeast
C H O → 2C H OH + 2CO 6 12 6 2 5 2
glucose ethanol carbon dioxide
CO 2 provides the ‘sparkle’ in beer, affording a pleasurable pain sensation through
interaction with the trigeminal nerve. Like ethanol, it plays a substantial role in establishing
the quality of beer. Apart from its in uence on mouthfeel, CO 2 determines the
extent of foamability (foam formation) and naturally in uences the delivery of volatiles
into the headspace of beers.