Summer or Winter, I love a good wheat beer.  There is more to the style than might meet the eye.  Almost immediately, many people think of Hefes when the term “wheat beer” comes up.  Well, I wouldn’t want to truncate this post to that degree.  Actually, Nate wrote a very nice post about wheat beers for our Styles of Beer Series, so I don’t have to go to in depth.  But there are many types of beer which to consider–mostly because they are somewhat hybrid types of beer–and I’ll add a couple to what Nate had on his post.  At any rate, here are some wheats that I believe are good examples of the style.

Wheat Bock/Double Bock: This is one of the wheat beers that is a great winter beer, although I will enjoy it in the heat of summer.  Wheat bocks are a very strong style of wheat beer that often uses a lager strain in addition to an ale strain and/or undergoes a lagering period.  They are thicker, stronger, and often darker than a normal wheat beer, yet they are oddly refreshing.  To me, the quintessence of the style is the classic Aventinus by Scheider and Sohn’s.  The beer is huge on the normal wheat characteristics of banana and cloves (some vanilla as well).  Plenty of residual sweetness balances out the 8.2%ABV.  There is an eisbock version of this beer that is huge.  Kulmbacher makes a nice version as well.  Recently, I enjoyed Ayinger’s Wheat Bock, which was also a real treat.  However, I think that the classic version is firmly given to Avenintus.

HefeWeizen: There are many alternative spellings and names under which a hefe can go.  I’ve seen Edelweisse, which is really a hefe but Edel is a way of saying royal wheat or wheat of the king.  Ur-Hefe would mean original.  Either way, one of the classic and wonderful hefes is Weinhenstaphaner’s version.  It takes the cake as the world’s oldest licensed brewery from 1054 A.D.  Their hefe is beloved and classic.

Of course, there are several other companies that make terrific hefes.  Franziskaner Hefe and Dunkel (Dark) Hefe have to be classic renditions.  Paulaner, Erdinger, and even Grolsch (theirs is terrific) offer their versions.  The list could go on forever, and it’s unlikely that too many American versions could even come close to being on the list.  However, the real powerhouse, in my mind, is Ayinger.  Their hefes are stunning, and I love their Brau-Weisse. This is certainly my choice for a classic.

Lambics: This is a very interesting style of beer.  With 35-40% unmalted wheat, this is actually a big wheat beer.  Of course, one of the beers that immediately comes to mind for a multitude is Lindeman’s. Their versions range from Kriek, Framboise, Cassis, Pêche, Pomme and Gueuze, the latter being an un-fruited and blended version of a true lambic. The sweeter versions have their place as well, and all of the Lindemans, with the exception of the Gueuze (called Cuvée René) are of that variety.  Perhaps Lindemans Framboise is a classic in its own way, but their Cuvée René is the real prize of their brewery.  For my money, Rosé de Gambrinus by Cantillion is a more classic version of Framboise specifically.  My favorite and what I consider to be the most classic Gueuze is Fond Tradition by Saint Louis, who also makes some sweeter versions of lambic, which I enjoy more than the Lindemans varieties.  Liefman’s also makes some good sweeter versions.  Boon and almost anything done by Hanssens (although they are actually only blenders) is terrific.  I’m a little reluctant to name one classic among the myriad of lambics, but I’d pick Cantillion or Hanssens as classic makers.  I will also say that America is making some serious headway on the the lambic style, so don’t pass them by.

I’m going to add more about various wheat styles, but I’m saving that for another post.  Remember that these are mostly opinions (I hope they are informed ones), so let’s not get too crazy or dogmatic about this or that beer.  I do feel I have discussed some very good/classic versions.  I’m going to make a effort to post the rest of these soon (it was way too long between posts).