American Wheat Beer and Baltic Porter

For those who love the American Wheat Beer style that has become such an engaging counterpoint to the wheat beers produced in Europe, Owen has the background on how the Widmer brothers created the American version by simply applying some practical knowledge to meet demand for more fresh beer.

When it comes to Baltic Porter there are different stories circulating on its origins, which is not unusual in the beer world. The key point is how brewers in Russia and the Baltic states began using the technique they knew best – lagering – and applied it to a style that was no longer available for import.

In both of these cases in very different parts of the world, skill, demand and creativity came into play to establish beers we can now enjoy daily - thanks to brewers who continue to pursue them and who add their own creative efforts.

Cheers!

AMERICAN WHEAT BEER

In 1986, homebrewing brothers Kurt and Rob Widmer were producing two brands of beer at their fledgling Widmer Brothers Brewing Company in Portland, Oregon: an altbier and a filtered weizenbier. The beers were selling so well at the local Dublin Pub that the pub’s owner asked the brothers to create a third brand. With only two fermenters, Kurt and Rob came up with a simple solution by kegging up a special batch of unfiltered, yeasty weizenbier.

After none of the pub’s patrons ordered this newfangled, cloudy American-style hefeweizen, one of the wait staff hatched a brilliant scheme. She pulled four tall glasses of the golden, murky wheat beer, stuck a lemon wedge on each rim, placed the beers on a tray and paraded around the crowded pub. Intrigued by the striking appearance of the new ale, customers soon fell in love with the unfiltered brew and catapulted it to the status of Widmer’s best seller. A new style of American beer was born.

An American Wheat Beer lacks the clove and banana fermentation character found in German weissbiers, with the flavor profile focusing more on pleasant hop aroma, hop flavor and bitterness alongside a refreshing, straightforward wheat and cereal grain backbone. Highly variable in style, American Wheats range from light, refreshing, somewhat sweet, sessionable versions to fairly well-hopped examples backed by a medium-bodied, substantial wheat profile.

Look for a color range of yellow to deep gold, with haze present in some versions. Proteins from wheat malt should coat the bubbles and create impressive head retention.