May 19 2009
American Wheat Beer
Ask any craft brewer to name the brewery’s top three selling beers and odds are that list will include a wheat style beer. Ever since the craft beer renaissance caught traction wheat beer has been a favorite style of brewers and drinkers alike.
 
|
American wheat beer, now a unique style all its own, started as an interpretation of Hefeweizen. This Bavarian ale is pale, cloudy, effervescent, and full-bodied. The style was so popular among Munich drinkers back in the day that wheat was the first exception to the famous Rheinheitsgebot, the Bavarian beer purity law that previously only allowed beer to be made of water, barley, and hops. Hefeweizen is fermented with a yeast that contributes flavors to the beer unique to the style. The yeast is allowed to stay in the beer where it reinforces the flavors of spice and banana.
When American craft brewers decided to recreate the style, some went to the trouble and expensive of finding style-specific strains of yeast. Many simply used the house yeast, typically a much cleaner fermenting British ale yeast. Using such a yeast produces a beer with a much different flavor profile. While the unfiltered versions of this style are visually virtually identical to Hefeweizen, the taste is much cleaner. The suspended yeast does contribute very subtle hints of spice but gone is the banana taste. The result is a beer that is very refreshing but still full bodied.
Almost every wheat beer comes unfiltered and the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle is intended to be part of the beer. When pouring this beer pour most of it in the glass as you would any other beer but leave 1/3 or 1/4 of beer in the bottle. Then swirl this beer to lift it from the bottom and pour it in the glass. You’ll notice the beer get cloudier but, trust me, this yeasty goodness makes it a whole different and much more flavorful beer.
