Favorite Wheat Beers

A good summer style, wheat based beers like Hefeweizens and pale wheat ales fit nicely in the middle of a good session (especially in warmer weather).  Also, this style is a very palatable for those beer drinkers that do not lust over hops and just want a flavorful, yet drinkable beer.  Without further adieu, a few of my favorite wheat beers.

New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat (7.2% ABV)

It Dances In Your Mouth

Dancing Man has the highest alcohol content among my recommendations, but that does not deter you from enjoying the awesome flavors integrated in my favorite New Glarus brew (just a sign to not drink too many in one sitting, especially if you are driving). I love the cinnamon notes prevalent at first taste, with a solid body backing up the initial spice flavors.  Illinois readers, make the trek up 94 and hit the Woodman's in Kenosha while this summer seasonal remains in stock.  Wisconsin readers, you have been depriving yourself if you have yet to pick up this perfect summer beer.  This beer has an A rating among my fellow hop heads at Beer Advocate without possessing a major hop presence.

Bell's Oberon (5.8% ABV)

Great Summer Beer, Readily Available

Not consuming it at every bar I see it at this summer (and trying to avoid bars where this is the only option or one of a precious few good options), I have grown to enjoy Oberon again.  For me, Oberon is the perfect ballpark beer, meant to be enjoyed outside during warmer weather.  A smooth drinker that leans more towards the pale ale side, Oberon has a balanced wheat taste blended with subtle citrus notes.  A good gatekeeper beer for those initially getting into craft brews, Oberon maintains its quality even with its greatly increased market penetration in the Midwest.

Summit Hefe Weizen (4.9% ABV)

Highly Recommended On Tap

One heads up, I much preferred this beer on tap and you will likely only see this on tap at places that focus on craft beers (at least for the non-Minnesota readers of the blog).  However, you can enjoy this out of the bottle, especially for the purposes of just having a beer or two and not participating in an all-out session.  A standard hefeweizen with citrus notes combining with a solid wheat body, this is another good beer in a line of consistently solid Summit offerings (and Summit is often one of the most affordable craft beers at $6-$8 per six pack).

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefeweizen (4.8% ABV)

Another Great Sierra Nevada Offering

I definitely missed out on enjoying Kellerweis this summer as this is probably my second favorite wheat beer (next to Dancing Man).  I love the lemon flavor that immediately jumps to the surface, backed up by a balanced body that makes each sip consistently delicious.  Somewhere I will find and enjoy this on-tap, but in the meantime I should make a point to pick up a bottle or six when I need to re-stock my fridge.

Three Floyds Drunk Monk Hefeweizen (5.5% ABV)

A Great Find

A "tame" offering from my favorite Munster, IN crazy brewers, Drunk Monk is an excellent hefeweizen and I would love it if Three Floyds decided to bottle this during the spring or summer.  A nice combination of citrus and wheat flavors, this is definitely a beer that can be here the next minute, gone the next without much thought. There is no single dominant flavor that jumps to the surface (like cinnamon for Dancing Man and lemon for Kellerweis), but the balance of the brew is outstanding and for me this is the true Three Floyds summer beer.  This is the easily the hardest one of the group to find (it's tap only and distributed only to the best of beer bars), but should be celebrated if you can find it.

Honorable Mention

It's probably not for everyone, but Left Coast's Tangerine Wheat was a nice change of pace for me.  The tangerine power is very prevalent (some may say overpowering), but it went down very smoothly and works well as a change of pace from heavier beers.

I loved Founders Dumbohead (aka Founders Festival Wheat) during a small sampling of it, but it was a rare release that is not even a regular among Founders brewpub line-up.  Thought to be created as an homage to Gumballhead, it is much superior to its namesake.

I hope that New Glarus's Black Wheat re-enters their line-up at some point, as that was a fun and different beer and I would like to enjoy a pint size offering of this (just had a small sample like Dumbohead).

Voyage to Twin Cities and St. Paul's Best Bars

As anyone that talked with me over the past month realized, I was really looking forward to my trip to the Twin Cities during second weekend in July for my friend Dave's wedding and more importantly checking out a couple of St. Paul's finest beer bars, The Muddy Pig and The Happy Gnome (just kidding on that Dave, I thoroughly enjoyed the wedding bud).

One Pleasant Pig

On that fateful Friday the 9th the erstwhile Brad Boman and myself embarked on our trip to the Pig and Gnome.  I instantly fell in love with the Pig because of their laid back atmosphere that nicely complemented an extremely strong tap list.
Happily discovering Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA on tap, I was ready for a strong opener (after enjoying a Surly Furious in the hotel room-Surly becoming distributed in Minnesota only ensures that I'll be hitting the Twin Cities more than periodically).  Always ready for a hoppy start to the night, the Commodore replied to the challenge and let me enjoy another strong GLBC brew as the subtle hop texture balanced with the floral taste made for a well designed IPA.  Not quite the kickass hop factor of Burning River, the Commodore was a strong English style IPA that thrives with balanced hop flavor.

Cleveland will always have a winner with GLBC

Round two at Pig called for a Rogue Double Dead Guy but unfortunately I was not prepared for the alcohol punch that the 9.0% ABV brew delivered.  After settling in about halfway through, I started to understand where Rogue was going with this brew and enjoyed the latter half much more.  However, as in many high ABV bocks, the prominence of the alcohol flavor overwhelms the beer and makes enjoyment of the beer that much more difficult (at least for me).  Definitely prefer the original Dead Guy and in this case bigger did not mean better.

A Quality Hefe from St. Paul

The finale at the Pig was time for a local taste as the bartender recommended our group the locally brewed Summit Hefeweizen.  Having a tepid reaction to Summit's Hefe out of the bottle, I went with the flow and hoped for the tap version to be an upgrade.  Indeed, it was much more enjoyable from the tap and one of the better hefe/wheat beers that I have enjoyed (not at level of Three Floyds Drunk Monk, New Glarus Dancing Man, or Sierra Nevada Kellerweis, but a couple of notches above Goose Island 312 and at least on par with much ballyhooed Bell's Oberon).  As with most hefes the prominent citrus flavor complemented the grainy wheat body and the flavors were in good balance with each other.  A few beers in now (and running on much too little sleep), I was rocking and rolling and ready for destination number two.

Joined by our old college buddy Rich,  the now three man group made short trip to Happy Gnome.  Initially worried about the Gnome having a pretentious atmosphere, we were pleasantly surprised by a second straight friendly, strong bartender that knew his beer (shout out here to the people of Minnesota, they really could teach many of us Chicagoans some lessons in enjoying life and dealing with people).

Yeah, I'll gladly be naughty for this Goose

After hearing the news that the Gnome was out of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout (probably good news to me, who did not need that knockout blow), I went with the bartender recommendation of GI's Extremely Naughty Goose Imperial Brown.  Whatever disappointment lingered about not trying the well reputed BCS quickly dissipated after tasting the first few sips of Naughty Goose.  Malty, sweet notes of chocolate and vanilla easily masked the 9.0% ABV.  Extremely drinkable for a 9.0% beer, the Extremely Naughty Goose was one delightful sip after another and just one phenomenal brew (definitely in contention for my top five all-time beers).

Good Times at Gnome

The night cap at Gnome was quite the interesting experience.  Per my recommendation Brad tried the Tyranena Chipotle Smoked Porter and shall we say struggled with the complexity of the brew.  Brad did not enjoy the self-described taste of barbecue pork (I will say, I also did not find the sweeter notes that made me such a fan when I enjoyed one at Brixie's a few weeks back).

Meanwhile my fervor for trying Rogue's Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout was quickly quelled after tasting one of the most highly decorated beers of its style.  For whatever reason I could not taste anything beyond the weakish oatmeal body, failing to enjoy any sweet and/or coffee notes inherent in most stouts.  After this night I was not exactly rushing to purchase any shares of Rogue (though I will make an attempt to try Shakespeare Stout  again as I realize a beer rated as an A by Beer Advocate is not the lemon I portrayed it as).

Meeting up with our buddies that were finished with the rehearsal dinner, it was bon voyage to the Gnome and a night of quality beer bar hopping was in the books (at least as it relates to quality beer bars).  The events of the rest of the night are sort of a blur anyways (thanks Vern for the tequilla shot), but thankfully I made sure to take strong mental notes on my trips to the Pig and Gnome and look forward to frequenting these spots on future trips to Minnesota.

Quick Addendum:

Deep into my enjoyment of the wedding reception Saturday night, I capped off the reception with Summit's Extra Pale Ale.   A strong bodied pale ale, Summit's EPA hit the spot with its hops and tasty floral notes (bitter, but tastefully bitter).  After a night with the liquors that Summit still went down smoothly and my taste buds enjoyed the change of pace.