Summer is around the corner…well maybe not for the average person, but for us in the brewing community we typically think pretty far in advance. Since the average beer takes around 21 days from start to finish we have to start thinking ahead of the game.Many of us are getting our summer libations ready for the market this week or in the next few weeks. And many of them will be on tap by mid May.
The warmth of summer brings many people closer to beer styles that are crisp, refreshing, thirst quenching, lower in alcohol (maybe not) and go well with all sorts of grilled, or picnic style foods. Pilsners, American style pale lager, American pale ale, hefeweizen, grisette, kolsch, witbier etc. All of these styles scream summer in my opinion. While ingredients may vary, they offer the aforementioned qualities of what many define as a “summer beer.”
I wanted to focus mainly on the style that many people gravitate toward in the dead of summer. Wheat beer!
The German Beer Institute offers a great definition of a German style wheat ale, and is what many people probably think of when this style is mentioned.
“Weissbier means “white beer” in German. The name derives from the yellowish-white tinge that is imparted by the pale malted wheat from which the brew is made. In North America, the brew is more commonly called Hefeweizen (literally “yeast wheat”), because it is unfiltered, meaning the yeast remains in suspension and causes the beer to look slightly turbid…”
“… According to German law, all beer that is labeled Weissbier or Weizenbier must be made with at least 50% malted wheat. Most Bavarian Weissbiers contain 60 to 70% malted wheat. The rest is malted barley.”
This is a great description of what makes a German style wheat ale. However, there are other styles that exist among us in the beer community that maybe you knew and maybe you didn’t know that fall into this category.
The second most common is probably the Belgian style white ale known to many as witbier, or white beer. This beer along with hefeweizen are typically starting points for many people who are getting into craft beer. They are fruity and easy to drink, one of them even contains fruit in the brewing process…the witbier. Traditionally, orange peel and coriander, and possibly another herb or spice may be added to give this beer its signature flavors. The yeast also helps to provide some unique flavors, just like the German weizen strains produce some really nifty banana and clove characters.
To me any beer that contains a significant amount of malted wheat in its recipe can be considered a wheat beer. Wheat gives beer a great mouthfeel, wonderful cereal-like flavors, a delightful color, and a well-roundedness that is difficult to match to any other style.
The average amount of wheat that most…I say most…wheat beers contain is around 30-40%. Almost all European wheat beer styles fall into this category. Many American varieties may be slighter lower than 30% but typically will not exceed 60%. It makes for a super awful brew-day without proper care of the mash. Wheat gets super sticky and makes it hard for water and wort to pass through a wheat heavy mash.
So why do we drink wheat ales over the summer? Perhaps for the same reason we drink lemonade on hot days. There have been many studies that point refreshment to acidity. Acidity stimulates salivation and thus helps you feel rehydrated. Weizen, saision, wit, and lambic style yeast strains all produce elements of acidity that create a tart, citrus, lemony or orange note that allows these beers to come across as refreshing. When the witbier style was introduced to the mass market in the mis 90’s through Miller-Coors with Blue Moon, they included an orange slice garnish to help people recognize the citrus acidity, promote its refreshing flavor, and help people identify what the product was in industry settings.
Today many people still add an orange to their witbier, or a lemon to their hefeweizen to help exemplify these flavors…in fact, over the past few years the shandy has taken a huge leap in sales in the US with the help of the Boston Beer Co. owned Traveler Beer Company. The Radler style developed for cyclists in Gemany has taken quite a leap in the US as well, which essentially is a light alcohol beer spiked with grapefruit juice or grapefruit soda.
A whole other category of wheat ales that help to promote thirst quenching acidic goodness are sour beers. The typical lambic style beer is composed of at least 40% malted wheat with a small portion of torrified or unmalted wheat product. The yeast and bacteria that produce the delicious sour notes we like do it by eating a lot of extra carbohydrates in these beers leaving them feeling thin. Unmalted and torrified wheat products help to keep the body and retain the head in these beers after they are finished. The delicious bugs, as they are playfully known in the brewing community, produce some delightful tart cherry, lemony, peach, and apricot flavors that go so nicely with the summer heat.
So this summer, when the weather becomes unbearable come visit us at The Tap and grab a pint of hefeweizen (late June); Bee’s Knees, our imperial honey witbier (next week), or even Bluebeard! That one is one of my favorites, a blueberry Berliner weisse. A tart, lemony German wheat beer spiked with the essence of blueberries. Perfect for a hot summer day!
Cheers!