Wheat Beer

What is Wheat Beer?

Wheat beer is a top-fermented beer brewed with a significant proportion (approximately 30-60%) of wheat malt.

Wheat beer is typically characterized by a light and refreshing taste, with some spicy and fruity aromas. The top-fermenting yeast used in wheat beer fermentation imparts the beer with distinctive banana and clove flavours and a delicate tartness.

Wheat beer exhibits a white, rich, and very persistent foam.

Wheat beer is produced in both light and dark varieties (dunkelweizen), both unfiltered (hefeweizen) and filtered (kristallweizen), and both lighter and stronger versions (weizenbock).

Most wheat beer is brewed in Southern Germany (Bavaria) and Austria. In German, wheat beer is called either weizen or weissbier, where "weizen" means wheat and "weisse" means white. Wheat beer is called "white" because the wheat proteins give the beer a hazy colour, often appearing whitish.

Wheat beer is also popular in Belgium, where it is called witbier.

Origin Story

Based on Sumerian records, we know that beer was brewed from spelt (so-called ancient wheat) at least 8000 years ago. Therefore, it is quite possible that wheat was used in beer production even before barley. Ancient Egyptians also used wheat for brewing beer.

Further proof of wheat beer production comes from the Hammurabi Code from the 2nd millennium BC – the Babylonian legal code regulated the sale and price of wheat beer.

The first evidence of wheat beer brewing in Europe dates to 800 BC in Bavaria. It is known that by the 14th century, wheat beer had become a very popular beverage in Bavaria. However, a significant turn in the development of German wheat beer came in 1516 with the enactment of the "Reinheitsgebot" or "Beer Purity Law". It stipulated that beer could only be made from three ingredients: barley, water, and hops. As a result, wheat beer disappeared from the everyday fare of the common folk.

Somehow, Lord Hans Sigismund von Degenberg managed to obtain a special permit from the Duke of Bavaria to brew and sell wheat beer. Later, this monopoly passed on to the Duke of Bavaria himself, and wheat beer became the drink of the nobility. You can read more about the history of German wheat beer in the description of hefeweizen.

Today, wheat beer is the most popular beer style in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Outside of Germany, wheat beer is also popular in Austria, Belgium (witbier), and the Netherlands, but various styles of wheat beer are brewed all over the world.