Beer Styles- American Wheat

The American Wheat style encompasses a broad range of American crafted wheat beer. Generally unfiltered, it should be slightly hazy and yellow/gold in color. Alcohol is usually between 4-7% ABV and is generally considered a good session beer.

Clean fermenting yeast is used to produce little to no phenols or diacetyl flavors that are found in German weizens. Some examples exibit a lot of characteristics of the Bavarian Hefeweizen style: Widmer Bros and Troegs Dreamweaver are on the top of my head. Most examples, however, are geared towards crisp hop flavor (both citrus and spicy): Southern Tier Hop Sun, Bell's Oberon are good examples of this.

The other thing that is unique to this style is the use of spices. American brewers do not commonly spice beers, which is very common in several parts of Europe. In general, spices that can be used to increase the wheat beer flavors are Grains of Paradise (peppery), Orange Peel, Lemon Peel, and in some cases whole fruit like Blueberry, Strawberry, Oranges, and Blackberries.

13 Colonies, my version of the American Wheat is geared a bit more to the hoppy bitter side of the scale. Two late Cascade hop additions provide a nice crisp grapefruit and lemon bite also giving the beer a 24 IBU bittermess. The beer is also spiced with Grains of Paradise. Finaly ABV is 4.5% which is perfect for summer activities coming up.

The beer its self is very good, on the Beeradvocate rating system, I would probabbly score it a B-. I need to increase the head retention which I will do by adding about 8 oz. of Crystal/Caramel 10 malt. I may also add some orange peel to enhance the flavor a bit.