Wheat Beer Suggestions

We recently had Maui's Bikini Blonde Lager, and it was exceptional. Not purely a wheat beer, but similar enough.

 

I could posted this verbatim.

 

I've been aching to try this because I hear it isn't a half bad representation of a traditional German hefeweizen. I'm moving to MA in a few months, which just recently Yuengling expanded into, but no Summer Wheat for MA.

 

3 F's Gumballhead and a more available Boulevard Brewing 80 Acre Hoppy Wheat Ale. I actually like the 80 Acre better than the Gumballhead for a wheat beer.

 

This right here is the problem I have with all these hoppy wheat beers popping up everywhere. Great, you use wheat when you brew the beer. That means that the body is likely a tad thicker than a standard IPA, and if you leave the yeast suspended you might get a hint of some sort of banana esters, but generally you're paying to have your tastebuds rocked by hop flavors that are going to override anything else.

I disliked Gumballhead for that reason (among others)- it's way too hoppy for what I consider appropriate for a wheat beer. I want to taste the creamy, bready flavors from the yeast and wheat, not strange slight assertions of wheat flavors overlayed with powerful floral hops.

Beers that are over hopped deserve some strange adjustment in style, unfortunately though, this isn't the case, and top 50 lists of styles that are not normally hoppy are slowly being inundated with highly ranked, over hopped beers claiming to represent that "style", which in the end are nowhere near exemplars of the actual style.

 

Ayinger , Paulaner, Schneider Weisse, Edelweiss

 

Tallgrass Halcyon is wonderful.

 

Victory's Whirlwind Wit is out, and quite tasty. Should be easy enough to find.

Troegs Dreamweaver is available year round. Another tasty option that should be easy to find.

 

If you like hefe, do yourself a favor and pick up a sixer of Sierra Nevada Kellerweis. Not only will your taste buds thank you, but so will your wallet at around $7-$8 per six. It's such an under-discussed, under-hyped and generally under-appreciated brew; it confounds me.

 

Two roads no limit hefeweizen is great, and yuengling summer wheat was a very pleasant surprise.

 

Yeah if you can find Kellerweis pretty fresh, you really should buy some. One of the only American made weisbiers that's worth a damn, and a good one to boot. There have been rumors they might retire it due to low sales, so ya'll better engineer a sales turnaround this year by buying the hell out of it.

 

If anyone is in the Charlotte, NC area Olde Mecklenburg Brewery has a great hef called hornets nest and their southside weiss is killer

 

Harpoons UFO series is well done/well priced and should be available anywhere.

 

Whenever I see a thread like this I reply with Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpin or Allagash White (already mentioned). I just tried Boulevard Tank 7 Farm House Ale tonight and it is worth mentioning in a wheat beer thread. Really nice beer that hits the wheat beer flavor even though it's classified as a Farmhouse Ale. Just a thought.

A lot of great German Hefes already mentioned but I didn't see Andech's Hefe. IMO a great Hefe.

 

These rumors have been flying around forever, but they might be substantiated since I'm having a harder and harder time finding Kellerweis at any beer store I go to lately.

 

Troegs Dreamweaver. Find it to vary quite a bit, but always interesting. And you can't go wrong with Weihenstephaner.

 

Weihenstephaner and Paulaner old school.
Little Sumpin' Sumpin' new school.
All awesome.

 

Revolver Blood & Honey is a Pale Hefe that completely blew me out of the water. Live Oak Hefe is constantly one of the best year around hefes in Texas from Live Oak. Then Real Ale just release White. Pretty damn tasty, but I think that's a limited release.

 

Oberon, Firestone Solace, and Boulevard 80 acre are some good ones I have had this summer. If you can get your hands on Two Brothers Monarch white beer or Revolution's Rosa, with hibiscus flower, give them a try. The Rosa has some bitterness along with a tart taste, pretty good and refreshing.