American...Hefeweizen?

Yup, you answered your own question here.

Cheers!

 

Yes, from this reply I can see you are "upset".

Marketing occurs everywhere and I suppose you have your "gears grinded" on a regular basis.

My suggestion: drink a beer!

Cheers!

P.S. Perhaps an opportunity for you to become a spokesperson?

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/styles/93/

American Pale Wheat "Beer."

Basically, breweries copped the name to excuse the haziness... many years ago.

 

Do you accept American Porters and Stouts, American IPAs, Baltic Porters, German Pilsners, American Brown Ales and Belgian IPAs?

 

Didn't Widmer pioneer the use of that term? I remember that being controversial back in the day.
The funny thing is that the "style" went cull circle. The weizen beers that they serve in Dusseldorf are far closer to Widmer's vs. Paulaner or Franziskaner. I guess they got their inspiration from a relocated PNW brewer instead of Bavaria.

 

And I suppose that makes sense since an Altbier type yeast is used to ferment Widmer Hefeweizen beer:

“10. What else would you want people to know about your flagship beer?

Over the years we’ve taken some heat because we didn’t use a traditional Bavarian yeast, but it’s important to remember that things were different in the mid-80s. The simple truth is that in the beginning our lab and yeast handling techniques were so primitive that we didn’t have confidence we would be able to maintain two yeast strains in our brewery. So we simply used our Altbier yeast to make both the Weizen and Hefeweizen. We did our best to describe the beer as our interpretation of the style or as American Hefe, and the good news is that most people were not all that concerned with style and loved the beer anyway!”

https://flagshipfebruary.com/2021/02/14/rob-widmer-on-hefeweizen/

Prost!

 

Controversial, or just plain confusing? I've mentioned before that I remember trying my first "American Pale Wheat Ale" back in the '90s in Portland, OR -- "Hey, a Hefeweizen, that sounds good... uh, what the heck is this?"

That said, it's nearing Oberon time -- a beer listed as an APWB -- an all-time favorite that takes the style more toward a Wit than a Pale Ale brewed with wheat.

 

Never change, BA. I love you all.

 

I didn’t read OPs post so hopefully it won’t bite me in the ass.

I do notice the marketing myself. But I have an example (i don’t know a ton about this) but anyhow Magic Hat several years ago it was a six pack of Hefeweizen. The catch was 3 were hefe yeast named zirkus boy and 3 were ale? Yeast names circus boy. Both were the same base wheat beer recipe regardless. From memory the difference was vast from everything from flavor to carbonation to density. I’m sure this was a marketing thing but I also remember the German version zirkus boy being superior. So what I’m getting at is if an American brewer uses a German hefe yeast.....does the beer gain citizenship due to the grounds it was brewer on?? Lol due to terroir and culture I think it’s still german-style I wouldn’t call it American hefe.

as a home brewer have you made Hefeweizen? And what do you call it personally? If you had a taproom or brewery how would you advertise these variations ? Just a curious question since you are very knowledgeable

 

In my opinion if the beer is brewed using a Hefeweizen yeast (e.g., Wyeast 3068) and a mix of barley malt and wheat malt that beer is a Hefeweizen. Up to the brewery whether they would choose to market that beer with the verbiage of "German-style" or not.

Yes, I have brewed several batches of Hefeweizen using the aforementioned Wyeast 3068 and a 50/50 mix of Pilsner malt and Wheat Malt. I 'labeled' those beers as Hefeweizen (an equivalent term could be Weissbier).

For completeness I have never homebrewed an American Wheat Beer. I have brewed several batches of Belgian Witbier.

Cheers!

 

Just like American made Kölsch beers?

 

Hefe just means with yeast.

 

Yup. I guess an American brewer that was working at Uerige suggested they give it a shot (based on Widmer's) and the rest is history. All of the wheat beers in town were based off of that one. Looking at the Uerige website, it doesn't look like it's something they brew anymore. Fuchschen either, so that whole thing might be over.

 

You got it, but again -- the "style" is far from new.

 

Don't forget that it would need to be bottle conditioned or something equivalent to be a Hefeweizen, hence the name. Just like how a pale ale can't be black, an old ale can't be fresh, and a stout can't be weak... oh wait...

 

This thread reminds me of how much I miss Southern Tier’s Hop Sun.