After a day at the beach, a jog around the park or even actually mowing the lawn, many people reach for their favorite “lawnmower beer” — a term applied to light, sessionable summertime beers marketed as post-yardwork refreshment.
But what if I told you that there are better and — dare I say — tastier alternatives that are just as thirst-quenching? Many such beers that share one ingredient in common: wheat.
Wheat beers
While most beer is made with barley, wheat has been used to brew beer for centuries. The early Sumerians and Egyptians brewed with wheat up to 8,000 years ago. And while wild barley proved to be better for converting starches into fermentable sugars, some brewers continued to make wheat beers, often using primarily barley and a smaller percentage of wheat. Several brewing cultures developed their own distinctive beers featuring wheat. These beers first became popular in Europe in the areas around southern Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Flanders region of Belgium in the 12th or 13th centuries.
Beers made with wheat tend to be softer, smoother and very easy-drinking, and retain a distinctive flavor thatap rich, creamy and malty, almost bread-like. They tend to have generous foam heads, and some, like hefeweizens, are served in tall glasses to accommodate those heads. They’re usually low in bitterness, which allows the wheat and barley flavors to shine. Some add flavors like orange peel and coriander, while for others, the yeast itself creates the flavors of clove and banana.
These are not watery beers. They have complex flavor profiles yet remain ideal for hot weather thanks to their smooth mouthfeel. They’re light and gentle, but not too sweet, and often have slightly lower alcohol levels.
Types of Wheat Beer
Today’s brewers make a variety of wheat beers, either based on the European styles or of their own invention.
Weissbier is the O.G. of wheat beers, and is also commonly known as hefeweizen (which means “yeast wheat”) because the yeast is not filtered out of the beer, making its appearance cloudy. Itap essentially the original hazy beer, though itap not at all bitter. Instead, the yeast used gives it notes of bananas and cloves. Weissbiers became so popular that they threatened the wheat supply needed to make bread.
Thatap partly why the Reinheitsgebot (a law that declared beer could only be made with barley, hops and water) was enacted in Germany in 1516 — to reserve wheat for making bread. But an exception was made for royalty, and the Duke of Bavaria kept brewing wheat beer as a monopoly for several centuries.
Eventually its popularity fell, and in 1872 the duke sold the rights to Georg Schneider, who continues to make his beers to this day. Other beers similar to hefeweizen include kristallweizen, a filtered version; dunkleweizen, a maltier dark version better suited to later summer; and Weizenbock, bock beer brewed with wheat malt.
Early craft brewers took traditional styles and made them their own. in Portland, Oregon, created the American hefeweizen style in 1986 using its house ale yeast, which created a cleaner but still light ale without the clove and banana notes. The softer wheat character lends itself well to letting added fruit come through while retaining its essential beer personality. Thatap why putting a lemon wedge in the glass became a craze. Many brewers took that style and began experimenting with adding different fruits, creating a host of new fruit wheat beers.
White beer or witbier originated in the Flanders region of Belgium. Like hefeweizen, itap also cloudy and unfiltered, but flavored with added coriander and orange peel. This fruit and spice combination gives witbier a distinctive and quite refreshing taste profile. The style originated in the Middle Ages, and all but died out by the 1950s. Fortunately, it was revived by Pierre Celis, a milkman in Hoegaarden, Belgium, who began brewing the style again in the 1960s. Happily, it became wildly popular again. In the U.S., Coors created its own popular version, which it named Blue Moon. But for my money, the best American witbier is Allagash White, brewed in Portland, Maine.
Two other wheat beers that are not as widespread but do have their devoted fans include Berliner weisse and gose. Berliner weisse originated near Berlin, and is a lightly sour, low-alcohol beer made with half wheat malt. It was also frequently served with an added fruit syrup, and as a result, many fruit versions exist in modern interpretations, too. Gose originated in Goslar, Germany, and is a style of low-alcohol sour beer brewed with wheat. Goses are frequently brewed with salt, giving them a unique flavor, and contemporary goses often have added fruit or other flavors. These can be some of the most refreshing sour beers available.
Contact Jay R. Brooks at BrooksOnBeer@gmail.com.
