Yankee Brew News Archive

New England-Brewed Wheat Beers

Originally Published: 08/97

By: Gregg Glaser

The following beer reviews list the results of a tasting panel whose goal was to review all wheat beers produced by New England breweries and brewpubs that package in bottles or growlers. Micros that only keg their beers, and the majority of brewpubs that don't bottle, were not included. The reason was to create a central location for the tasting. Also not included were fruit-flavored wheat beers. All beers were shipped directly by the breweries, insuring the freshest possible product.

The format was a blind tasting, with the panelists knowing only the specific style of wheat beer and any special ingredients. The members of the panel included Peter Reid, Editor of "Modern Brewery Age"; Jack Kenny, Beer Columnist for the "Connecticut Beverage Journal"; Steve "Dr. Pivo" Victor, BJCP beer judge and general bon vivant; The Naughty Nurse, occasional YBN contributor; and Gregg Glaser, YBN Associate Editor. The reviews, listed in the order they were tasted, are a distillation of the five panelists' comments.

New England Brewing, Norwalk, Connecticut

American Wheat

Strong esters and fruitiness in the aroma; sweet and yeasty; gold and clear; sweetish and malty in taste with a dry hop finish; no strong wheat character; low carbonation; could be brighter; a bit syrupy; a bigger body than expected for a wheat beer.

Mugs: 3

Castle Springs Brewery

Moultonborough, New Hampshire

Lucknow American Wheat Beer

Hops and a slight lactic aroma; gold and clear; tangy to a fault; a slight astringent finish; unbalanced; there seems to be a variety of hops with at least one that doesn't work; low carbonation; not completely refreshing as expected in a wheat beer; overall a clean beer, but a bit unbalanced.

Mugs: 2

Catamount Brewing

White River Junction, Vermont

American Wheat

A well-balanced light fruity aroma with a bit of perfume; gold and clear; nicely carbonated; spritzy, wonderfully refreshing; well-balanced; tangy; citrusy; light body; exemplary.

Mugs: 4

Otter Creek Brewing

Middlebury, Vermont

Summer Wheat Ale (American wheat)

Malty and hoppy aroma - like a pale ale; dark gold and clear; tart; astringent from hops; low carbonation; not completely refreshing as expected in a wheat beer; a bit unbalanced; heavy in the mouth.

Mugs: 2-2.5

Old Nutfield Brewing

Derry, New Hampshire

Summer Wheat (American wheat)

A big buttery aroma, sweet and hoppy; gold and clear; tastes like a light London ale; buttery; mild dry hop finish; no real wheat character; low carbonation; medium body. This is a great light ale, but has no links with a refreshing wheat beer.

Mugs: 2.5

Smuttynose Brewing

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Chuck Wheat Ale (American wheat)

A faint sweetness and some smokiness in the aroma; gold and clear; sweet and malty taste; some buttery flavors; low carbonation; no real wheat character; chewy; a bigger body than expected for a wheat beer. Like the prevoius beer, this is a good light pale ale, but it doesn't come across as a wheat beer.

Mugs: 2.5

Wachusett Brewing

Westminster, Massachusetts

Summer Breeze Wheat Ale (American wheat with lemon)

A pleasant, bright aroma of lemon and pepper; gold and hazy; tastes like a lemon spice; a bit cloying; a hop bitterness in the finish; the wheat beer behind the lemon is faint; moderate carbonation; nice to taste and sip, but might not want a full bottle.

Mugs: 2.5-3

Redhook Ale Brewery

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Hefe-Weizen (American wheat with yeast)

A tart and hoppy aroma; dark gold and hazy; a nice tartness from the wheat/yeast balance; bright; the yeast contributes well to the overall flavor; a muted complexity; well-balanced; a bitter hop finish that seems a bit inappropriate; moderate carbonation.

Mugs: 3

Anheuser-Busch

Merrimack, New Hampshire

Michelob Hefe Weizen (American wheat with yeast)

Very hoppy aroma with aromatics and lemon; gold and hazy; strong and distinctive hop flavor; malty sweetness that ends early; strong dry hop finish; wheat character is weak; good carbonation.

Mugs: 2.5-3

Boston Beer Company

Boston, Massachusetts

Sam Adams Summer Ale (American wheat with lemon zest and grains of paradise)

A spicy, aromatic aroma; gold and clear; lemony; spicy; well-balanced (this could easily go overboard in one direction or the other, but it doesn't); slightly dry bitter finish with some tartness present; mouth-watering finish; soft palate; low carbonation.

Mugs: 3-3.5

Allagash Brewing

Portland, Maine

White Beer (Belgian-style Wit with Curaçao orange peel, coriander and a secret ingredient)

A strong coriander aroma, heavy at first, but it fades to a lovely level quickly; gold and slightly hazy; an orange-lemon taste; a puckery bitterness from the orange; heavy on the coriander, but this will probably fade in the bottle as the beer ages; the tartness of a Belgian Wit is not there; hops are nicely restrained; good carbonation; elegant.

Mugs: 3

Shipyard Brewing, Portland, Maine

Summer Sirius Wheat Beer

Sweet and buttery in the aroma; gold and clear; sweetish and buttery in taste with a dry hop finish; very mild wheat character; good carbonation; clean.

Mugs: 3

The following New England breweries also bottle wheat beers, but their beers didn't make it to the tasting panel. If you know of other wheat beers that we missed, let us know.

Gritty McDuff's, Portland, Maine

Sugarloaf Brewing, Carrabassett Valley, Maine

**Run as a sidebar**

A Wheat Beer Primer

By Gregg Glaser

Yankee Brew News Staff

So what is a wheat beer? Craft brewers across the region and the country have come out with many different wheat beers over the last several years, confusing many beer drinkers. Often, a brewery's only wheat beer is fruit-flavored.

The Germans brew two distinct styles of wheat beers, as do the Belgians. Then there is the style known as American Wheat Beer. What they all have in common is some proportion of malted or unmalted wheat mixed with malted barley (anywhere from 30%-70% wheat), and they are top-fermented beers, putting them in the ale family.

In Berlin (Germany, that is, not Connecticut, Vermont or New Hampshire) there is a style of wheat beer known as Berliner Weisse (white). This beer is very pale in color, intensely tart and sour, sparsely hopped, low in alcohol, quite effervescent, light in body and contains yeast in suspension, producing a cloudy beer. It's often served with raspberry syrup or woodruff to offset the sourness.

In Bavaria, the southern German style of wheat beers are known as weizen (wheat) hefe-weizen (yeast wheat) or weisse beers. These beers are usually pale or straw colored, with aromas and flavors of clove, bubblegum and bananas and possibly some tartness. Hopping rates are low, effervescence is high, alcohol is in the normal range (4.5%-5%) and the body is light. Hefe-weizens contain yeast in suspension, producing a cloudy beer.

One style of Belgian wheat beer is called a Wit (white) or Bière Blanche. This beer is often brewed with 50% malted barley and 50% unmalted wheat and spiced with coriander and Curaçao orange peel. Wits are pale, slightly cloudy, effervescent, light in body, normal in alcohol content and somewhat sour tasting.

The Belgians also brew lambics, sour wheat beers produced only in the Senne River Valley southwest of Brussels. These beers are spontaneously fermented with wild yeasts and bacteria and aged for two years or more in oak barrels. Lambics are brewed with 30%-40% unmalted wheat and aged hops. Straight lambics are young, acidic and fruity. Faro lambics are young lambics sweetened with candy or brown sugar. Gueuze lambics are a blend of aged and young lambics with a winy and tart flavor. Fruit lambics are aged lambics into which whole macerated fruit or fruit juices have been added during the long aging process. The most common fruits used in lambics are raspberries (known as Framboise or Frambozen) and dark, bitter cherries (known as Kriek).

American wheat beers are all of the above. Well, not really, although many American craft brewers do brew the above styles. An American wheat beer is best described as a pale ale into which some proportion of wheat has been added. They can be pale, amber, or copper in color, hoppy or not hoppy, slightly grainy from the wheat or not, light in body and normal in alcohol content.

Correction to Brown Ale Tasting Panel

A correction needs to be made to the notes in the brown ale tasting panel from the last issue of YBN (June-July 1997.) The sample from Old Harbor/Pilgrim Brewing (Pilgrim Nut Brown Ale) may have been out-of-date, according to the brewer. Pilgrim recommends a 90-day shelf life for their un-filtered, un-pasteurized ales. The sample the panel tasted was delivered by the brewery in late January and tasted on April 2, but the brewery says it was bottled early in January. Although the bottle was kept refrigerated from the day it was received until it was tasted, in fairness to the brewer we should assume that the beer was past its prime and that the tastings note are not reflective of a fresh bottle of Pilgrim Nut Brown Ale. Apologies to Pilgrim Brewing.

- Gregg Glaser

Page 7 NEW ENGLAND-BREWED WHEAT BEERS /