There’s nothing better than kicking back with a pint of beer whilst settling into a cosy firelit evening with family or friends. Relaxing after a hard day at work or enjoying the holidays.
Wheat beers are widely known as one of the most inviting, drinkable beers in the world, wheat beers are usually hazy, light gold in appearance, use ale or lager yeast, and above all, are brewed with a large amount of wheat.
This is what makes them so drinkable, delicious and thirst-quenching. The exact amount of wheat depends on the beer. American wheat beers usually have at least 30% malted wheat in them. One of the classic American beers such as Bell's Oberon, has between 10 to 35%.
However German "weissbiers" need at least 50% wheat malt. The iconic versions of witbiers such as ‘Hefeweissbier’ usually use 20% malted wheat.
It’s a style of brewery that covers the globe from witbiers in Belgium and hefeweizens in Germany, to wheat beers in America. Inspired by the unfiltered wheat beers of Bavaria, American craft brewers wanted to acquire this fruity, spicy vibe.
They didn't have access to that speciality Belgian yeast or Bavarian Weizen yeast. So as a result, they turned to clean fermenting American ale and larger yeast. Today, the American wheat ale isn't the most popular style by any stretch of the imagination, but it deserves its due diligence.
Traditionally, wheat beers are finicky because the proteins and starches in the high amount of grain make it harder to extract the essential yeast sugars.
As a result, you know whether you're drinking an American wheat beer, a German Weizen, or a Belgian witbier that has been brewed with intention and dedication to a craft. Despite the origin of wheat beers, one thing doesn't change.
Usually, this style has a good amount of haze, creamy texture, and citrusy, bready notes. They're delicious, light, and perfect for any time you desire.
OUR TOP PICK
This golden-yellow wheat beer is poured with white foam. The beautiful smell of cloves and refreshing banana aromas pull its consumers in. This beer is full-bodied with a smooth yeast taste.
This beer can be enjoyed at any time and goes particularly well with seafood, spicy cheese and especially with the traditional Bavarian veal sausage. This beer has been brewed for centuries with the old brewing tradition on the Weihenstephan hill.
- Style : Wheat Beer
- ABV : 5.4%
- From : Germany
- Avail : Year - Round
- Wants : 1,006
- Gots : 2,359
Review: “Best beer in the world. Great head. Full body. Fruity notes of banana and clove. No aftertaste. Incredibly carbonated. Delicious yeast. Great finish. Get a refill”.
EDITORS CHOICE
This beer was inspired by the classic wheat beers of Bavaria, Hefeweizen, is cloudy and a lovely light yellow, with a meringue-like head that lingers to the final sips.
Brewed with plenty of wheat malt and a few hops, this beer features a unique yeast strain that produces beautiful notes of clove, banana and vanilla throughout this delicious brew. This is a traditional take of a classic style of brewery, brewed perfectly in Texas.
- Style : Wheat Beer
- ABV : 5.3%
- From : Texas, US
- Avail : Year - Round
- Wants : 822
- Gots : 293
Review: “From a can. Cloudy golden colour with an inch of foamy white head. Smells of bread and cloves. Medium body and creamy feel. Breadly flavours with the characteristic banana and clove notes.
Mild bitterness on the finish. One of the best all-around Hefeweizens I’ve had. Would probably guess it was German if I tasted it blind”.
BEST VALUE
If you’re a mad wheat lover when it comes to beers, this one will get you excited.
Since 1995, this company has brewed Bavarian-style wheat beers exclusively for the same great taste, with their very own Wisconsin wheat. In a world full of misleading advertisements and poor attempts at the Bavarian brew, this is a truly great wheat beer.
Naturally 100% bottle fermented and cloudy. The rich spicy clove and cinnamon tones will burst in your palette while the aromas tease your senses.
- Style : Wheat beer
- ABV : 7.2%
- From : Wisconsin, US
- Avail : Rotating, Seasonal
- Wants : 503
- Gots : 172
Review: “A very tasty hefeweizen. I don't get much cinnamon here. Yet it has a nice bready, banana and clove spice taste.
The carbonation comes through here for a nice balanced and clean finish. I think that’s what makes this beer drink so well. I enjoyed it very much”.
RUNNER UP
This beer has a spicy, crisp taste. Ayinger, situated at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, is one of the world’s most respected breweries. This brewery is family-owned and run since 1878. This beer has centuries of some of the finest beer craft in history.
- Style : Wheat beer
- ABV : 5.1%
- From : Germany
- Avail : Germany
- Wants : 195
- Gots : 413
Review: “Pours hazy, gold in colour with one-inch head. Great banana taste, clove, cardamon and wheat. Medium body and carbonation, sweet.
Excellent Hefe. Plenty of clean German flavour. Will seek out again”.
RUNNER UP
Since Saint Joseph’s Day on 19 March 1993, Andechs Weissbier Hell has found many new friends. Untreated and bottled in its natural state of yeasty turbidity, this is a top-fermented beer for the palet.
Its honey colour makes it an immediate contender. Then there’s the opalescence and fine structure of the yeast turbidity.
Also, the creamy, finely pored head invites you to get to know this light Weissbier from the Holy Mountain. You’ll need a few takes to enjoy the aromas to the full.
Distinctive fruity aromas such as banana and honeydew melon tickle the senses, followed by fine cloves. Andechser Weissbier Hell is a tangy, refreshing pleasure with the feel of a full, soft body.
It concludes on a finely balanced point of light sweet honey and delicate acidity with undertones of bitter hoppiness that quickly fade away into a harmonious mouth-watering piece of mastery.
- Style : Wheat beer
- ABV : 5.5%
- From : Germany
- Avail : Year - Round
- Wants : 101
- Gots : 83
Review: Love this weiss beer from Andechs, even a bit more than Weinstephaner. The beer pours a nice orange blossom colour, good head for the style, really nice aroma of cloves, banana.
The taste is just great, everything you anticipate from what you get in the nose comes out in the taste. It is a tiny bit more medium-bodied than Weinstephaner and hangs in there just a bit longer where Weinstephaner gets a bit watery as it settles.
This is an awesome weiss beer worth coming back to in any season, but especially summer. The Dunkel Weiss is also terrific.
RUNNER UP
The meaning behind this beer's delicious name is “Enjoying the moment in high spirits”. This beer is a bright wheat beer with original Schneider Weisse aromas, full-bodied and intense.
It has a mild, fresh and reviving effect on the palet. The perfect drink for a nice summers evening.
- Style : Wheat beer
- ABV : 4.9%
- From : Germany
- Avail : Year - Round
- Wants : 124
- Gots : 92
Review :
- Look: “nice golden white with a medium white head”
- Smell: “banana, malt, and wheat”
- Taste: “banana, wheat, and malt”
- Feel: “super smooth, just the right amount of carbonation”
RUNNER UP
This beautifully smooth unfiltered beer is naturally very cloudy, full-flavoured and incredibly refreshing.
Georg Pschorr, the owner of the Pschorr brewery and a man of true foresight, spread the word of his delicious and thoroughly enjoyable Hefe - Weissbier and made it famous beyond the borders of Bavaria. A true businessman.
- Style : Wheat beer
- ABV : 5.5%
- From : Germany
- Avail : Year - Round
- Wants : 128
- Gots : 372
Review:
Pours cloudy, gold in colour with one third inch head. There is a bit of skunk in the smell. Taste is banana, clove and wheat. Medium body and carbonation, slightly sweet. Nice Hefeweissbier. I prefer other German examples but this is good.
RUNNER UP
The meaning behind is fun and festive beer, “Ideal for celebrations”. Meine Festweisse. With its golden shade, this wheat beer is a great beer for fun occasions. Renewed from the traditional Oktoberfest beer recipe, it’s one for the history books.
It has a fresh citrusy note which comes from its precious cascade hops and the fruity Schneider yeast, a treat, unrivalled in its freshness and drinkability.
This beer goes very well with light dishes such as Mediterranean fish recipes, and of course, festive affairs.
- Style : Wheat beer
- ABV : 4.1%
- From : Germany
- Avail : Year - Round
- Wants : 100
- Gots : 130
Review: “Man this is an awesome pouring beer, huge huge fluffy white head that just lingers and lingers. A little bit of lacing is present as it goes down but that head just condenses into a cloud that keeps sticking around until about halfway done.
The Colour is a light pale and cloudy brown. The aroma was really big on banana, little something sweet, a touch of something floral. The spice notes take a back seat in this one which to me is a good thing and I also pick up on some bubble gum notes”.
RUNNER UP
Previously known as Hefe - Weissbier. This German beer has a very deep ester flavour and scent profile of the tri-cyclic German soil. The quality of the soil is very high, hence the deep raisin, caramel and banana bready texture and flavour.
It is surprisingly deep for a standard strength Weiss beer.
- Style : Wheat beer
- ABV : 5%
- From : Germany
- Avail : Year - Round
- Wants : 284
- Gots : 1,363
Review: “An overexposed exuberance of discrepancies with a pinch of how's your father on the nostrils. Belligerent, yet fully floating in a suave exterior of admonished youth. Distinctly up and at em conflagrations in a satisfying duel of light and life”.
RUNNER UP
This Bavarian-style wheat beer is more complex than others, with flavours reminiscent of banana bread and spicy cloves. It is hazy golden and glows with beautiful suspended yeast, in turn creating a velvety texture and a smooth and refreshing finish.
Kellerweis is one of the unique few wheat beers made using the Bavarian method of open fermentation, this allows the ingredients to come through and create depth and personality in this hazy golden delight.
The ideal way to serve this beer, pour two thirds in a glass, swirl the bottle and then add the rest.
- Style : Wheat beer
- ABV : 4.8%
- rom : California, US
- Avail : Year - Round
- Wants : 376
- Gots : 768
Review: “I think their label got it right on the nose "Our Bavarian-style wheat beer is complex with flavours reminiscent of banana bread and spicy clove. This hazy-golden beer glows with suspended yeast, creating a velvety texture and refreshing finish."
This is one of the few beers where the label is spot on. Very much so enjoy the banana bread flavour going on, as well as the very smooth finish”.
Final Thoughts
For those unfamiliar with wheat beer, the key difference is that it’s brewed with a higher percentage of wheat in proportion to malted barley, which is typically used to make beer. Beyond that, there are different styles within the category, and each brings different flavours to the party.
In addition to American wheat beer, there’s German hefeweizen and Belgian witbier. Both are, of course, made predominantly with wheat. Witbier, however, is often brewed with spices as well, and hefeweizen frequently has a yeasty character to it, along with notes of banana.
Ultimately wheat beer does have flavour characteristics that separate it from other types of beer. Also, there are many domestic breweries, both craft and large, as well as foreign, that are making excellent wheat beer. And to top it off, many go very well with food.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is The Difference Between Weissbier And Hefeweizen?
“Hefeweizen is a type of weiss beer, German for “wheat beer.” Hefeweizen itself translates to “yeast wheat” in German. Made up of approximately 50% wheat, weiss beers are characterized by a strong presence of banana and clove, even vanilla or bubblegum, in the aroma and flavour”
I want to share with you all of my favorites, as well as share advice on picking certain alcohols and flavors.
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