On a hot summer’s day, one of life’s greatest rewards can be as simple as a cold sip of beer. Instantly, you can almost feel the life coming back to your tired limbs. Draw another mouthful, and the cold sensation in the back of your throat sends a signal to your brain that all is again right with the world.
Yet following those first, visceral moments, of course, there is still the remainder of the beer to enjoy. And so, with the early days of summer now upon us, it’s worth looking at what beers make the most sense for the approaching steamy weather. Lightness is certainly a valuable asset, but it should never be pursued at the expense of flavor. A good choice is both refreshing and satisfying.
Wheat beers fit the bill perfectly.
In all of its American, Belgian and German incarnations, wheat beer is developing a reputation across the continent as a summer beer, and deservedly so. On a hot summer day, relaxing on the patio or alongside a light midday meal, the pleasures of a nice, cold glass of sparkling wheat are undeniable.
Wheat beers come in three major styles, each with a distinctive character: Bavarian hefeweizen, Belgian white beer and North American wheat ale. Despite their differences, all are marvelous summer brews that are great matches for warm weather foods, such as salads, light lunches, good bread, cheese and cold cuts, and sunny Sunday brunches.
The German version is known by either of a pair of confusingly similar names: weizen,—pronounced “vite-zen,” meaning “wheat,” and weisse, pronounced “vice,” meaning “white.” Add the prefix hefe-, which is pronounced “hay-fe,” to either word and you have a wheat beer with nutritious brewer’s yeast in the bottle.
Generally light to medium gold in color, effervescent and cloudy with a yeast deposit, hefeweizens tend to be spicy-fruity in character, with a particular emphasis on clove and banana notes. Those flavors and aromas come not from fruit or spice additions, however, but from the particular family of yeasts used for fermentation. If the beer is labeled kristal, that means the yeast has been filtered off and these attributes will generally be lessened. The clove notes typical of the style, in particular, will be most noticeable on the nose.
Fruit and spice flavors in Belgian white beers, on the other hand, come from the addition of coriander and orange peel to the brewing process. The soft coriander and orange accents of Belgian-style wheats make them among the most purely refreshing beers in the world and particularly wonderful accompaniments to egg dishes of all sorts. Additionally, those flavors are complemented by the light, sparkling nature created by the use of unmalted wheat, as opposed to the German and North American use of malted wheat.
The third major style of wheat got its start when America’s craft breweries began searching for a style of beer more amenable to major-label beer drinkers than were their original, assertive pale ales and stouts. Finding none that suited, brewers began using wheat to lighten their golden ales and thus a style was born—slightly citrusy, soft in hop bitterness and quenching when served cold. These brews are sometimes served unfiltered and, adding to the confusion inherent in the wheat beer family, may even be labeled with the German name, hefeweizen. But regardless, they are indeed a style unto themselves.
Stephen Beaumont is a veteran beer writer and author of five books on the subject. His writing on beer, drinks, food and travel appears in a wide variety of national and international publications.