American Wheat Beers

  Over the past week or so I've been thinking long and hard about what my 'favourite style' of beer is. I love big hitting American IPA's, you just can't go wrong with a biscuity, wholesome English Ale, and, of course, I'm always in the mood for a Guinness, but I've decided that, whilst I don't have a 'favourite style' as such, I do have a genuine love for wheat beers. Nothing is better on a cold afternoon than a stein of HefeweiBe and a bratwurst at the beer tent of a Christmas continental market. In saying that, a wheat beer goes down equally well on a lazy summer evening, served in a tall glass, with some cheeses and olives to nibble on. But when I think of wheat beers, I nearly always think of German or Belgian beers, like Unertl, Schneider WeiBe, Franziskaner or Hoegaarden. It's only very recently that I've begun to explore the variety of wheat beers and weizens from across the globe, and most notably, America.
    The first beer I tried was Goose Island's effort, 312 'Urban Wheat Ale'. 312 comes in at a pretty normal 4.2%abv, so no real surprises there. The first thing which struck me as I poured the beer was the appearance. Although this is an unfiltered beer, I still found that it was just a little transparent. I expected a swirling, opaque, yeasty foggyness and instead I found it was almost like a cloudy lager. The carbonation was very visible and the colour was a sort of golden straw colour rather than pale . This wasn't necessarily a negative point, it was just different from what I was initially expecting. The smell was infinitely more pleasing. It had notes of lemony zest and spices, along with heaps of wheaty aromas. This carried on into the taste, which was, again, quite lemony. It had a fair amount of aromatic hop flavours, with just a little sourness. It had flavour, but for some reason I found it to be just a little bland and lacking in kick. The liberty and cascade hops which were used just seemed to have been suppressed by the wheatyness. I wasn't expecting a pale-ale style bitterness, but just some sort of bite would have helped it.
  I found Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis was much closer to its European counterparts. It poured a hazier amber colour, and had a thicker, longer lasting head. The nose had banana with a hint of coriander, and plenty of spice. The brewers spent a long time looking for the perfect recipe before this beer was released in 2009, and the yeast strain which they eventually settled on gives this beer it's more German feel, with notes of bubblegum and clove coming through in the aroma. The taste is definitely more American however. It has the feel of a real craft beer, expertly made with real thought. The spices come to the fore and the flavour changes hugely in the mouth, going from coriander, to lemon, to bubblegum. The only downside to this great beer is the mouthfeel. I think there is just a little bit too much carbonation, which takes away from the smoothness I would expect from the style, this however is just a minor point and it doesn't take away from what is a very good effort at a wheat beer.
   Finally, I had a Blue Moon. Blue Moon is brewed by Molson Coors, so, whilst technically a 'craft beer' it isn't exactly micro brewed, nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. It pours a more orangey colour than the other two, with a really good, bubbly head. On the nose it has huge orange and coriander aromas, which are amplified when the beer enters the mouth. The citrus and orange flavours work really well with the tartness provided by the wheat, to give a really good all round taste. The mouthfeel is smooth and the overall style of the beer is more akin to a Belgian weizen. So much so, in fact, that in 1999 the Confederation des Brasseries de Belgique filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of 'misleading the public' with regards to the beer's origin.
   So, out of the three I think Blue Moon was the personal favourite, although I still think a tall glass of Aventinus is very hard to beat! I look forward to trying more wheat beers from the U.S and further afield, but for my next one I'm coming a little closer to home, for a Curim Gold Irish Wheat Beer. I'm looking forward to it!