With the return of warm weather, my affection for wheat beer has revived. Many people don't know how good wheat beer is, so I thought I'd spread the word. Here's the intro to a fine Wikipedia article that will tell you plenty about wheat beer:Wheat beer is a beer that is brewed with both malted barley and malted wheat, rather than only barley. The addition of wheat lends wheat beers a lighter flavor and paler color than most all-barley ales. Wheat beer is customarily top fermented, that is, fermented with ale yeast.
Wheat beers have become very popular in recent years, and are especially popular in warm weather.
The first picture is a draft wheat beer in its traditional German glass. Your server should present it to you with a lemon wedge on the rim. Enjoy the unique banana nose and flavor and then squeeze the lemon in for another dimension.
The second pic is my favorite German imported wheat beer, König Ludwig Weissbier. When you pour one of these, leave a little beer in the bottle to swoosh around and suspend the yeast sediment on the bottom. Taste the beer first and then add the yeast for even more flavor. Here's a five-star review that agrees with me on this beer.
American microbreweries have gotten in on the wheat beer act with some respectable entries. Below are pics of three I will drink when I can't find the König: Pyramid Hefe Weizen (hefe means with yeast sediment; weizen or weiss is wheat); Harpoon's UFO Hefeweizen; and Sierra Nevada Wheat Beer. Enjoy!
UPDATE: I cannot get König Ludwig this year but am now ready to say that Paulaner Hefe-Weizen from Germany has a delicious banana nose. Try it. I also sampled two more American efforts: Anchor Summer Beer, which is a filtered wheat beer, and Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat, which is a nice hefe.
I'd like to throw Boulevard Wheat (a local Kansas City Brew) into that mix. It was the first one I'd ever tried, and I feel in love.
ReplyDelete- Scott Randolph
I'm more into Bass Pale Ale although I tried a lovely barleywine last weekend, called ironically, Bigfoot Ale.
ReplyDelete(see blog for affection of Bigfoot)
Tried the UFO about a year ago. Sorta blasted me in its unfilteredness (is that a word, you are the smart one.)
Anyhoo, as my younger employees would say (and god knows they have written this to me) I heart beer.
Wheat beer is for women, of course. You know that because back during world war 2 when women were the biggest domestic market for beer, wheat beer became very popular. That lighter cleaner taste appeals more to women than the deeper more complex malt tastes. Cool.
ReplyDeleteWinter,
ReplyDeleteYou and I may differ politically, but that should never stop us from hoisting a couple of weizens together.
I was stationed for four years in Germany--most of that time in Bavaria, the home of weizen beers. There are three major types: helles hefe weizen, which is the one you pictured. Dunkle hefe weizen is a dark wheat beer, great for those late summer nights when there's a chill in the air. It's usually a chocolate color. At least one brewery, Keller, calls their version "schwarze weizen," or "black weizen." Finally, there is kristal weizen, which has the sediment filtered out. I much prefer the first two.
American beers have greatly improved over the last 15 years, but hefe weizen is apparently difficult to recreate outside of Germany. The first time that I had an American made weizen that I thought was close to the original, I was as far from Germany as one could be and still be in the States. It was at a brew pub in Honolulu.
And if you didn't think by now that I really like weizen beers, you should meet my dog. He's a yellow lab named "Helles Hefe Weizen." We just call him "Weizen."