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 ...

As promised, this is the beginning of our series of classics within the given styles of beer.  The format seems like it can take a similar shape to our Styles of Beer Series.  The previous series really just attempted to define what the styles of beer are, not what beers are the best/oldest/good versions of those styles. Now this series has taken shape because we feel that we ought to give the beers that are the gateway to those styles. Plus, we've had some prodding from others to the effect that we ought to do a series like this. So, it's high time we do it.  Without further ado, here are some of the classics. Stout found its earliest terminological usage in 1677 to describe a strong beer.  This is not necessarily meant to describe the stylistic guidelines that we are used to.  Although first used as an adjective, it is not the same thing as the more common application of "stout" to describe a stout porter.  While maybe not the oldest expression of the style or the best version, it is hard to get away from the notion that Guinness, at a minimum, popularized the style of beer.  Thus, stout ...

Do you ever wonder which beers are the best examples of a particular style?  What are the "standard of measure" when it comes to a stout, a lager, a porter?  Are there such things?  We think that there are beers that have come to define a classic style of beer.  These are not necessarily the "best" in category, but they do represent what most closely defines the style in the historical sense of the word.  For instance, Budweiser is the truest and best version of a classic German Lager.  Now that we've all had a good laugh, let's actually look into those beers that would best define particular styles.  Here are the definitions of the styles. This is easier said than done.  For every example you'll get one or more detractors who argue that beer X or Y actually predates, trumps, etc., the beer that you've named (I bet Scott might remember a certain stout review on his site as raising someone's ire).  Therefore, let me be clear that some of these are preferences in the style, others are first, and some are new enough styles that I'm making a declaration in new territory. Feel free to detract, add, or suggest.  Just ...