Weiss Up!

A summertime dream come true, wheat beer (a.k.a. weissbier, weizen or hefeweizen) is classically cloudy and fruity, an ale accenting yeasts' banana and clove esters. Oft misunderstood, weizens employ a preponderance of barley, with wheat in the grain bill, altering its body, clarity and flavor.

Although nearly every culture has brewed with wheat since Egyptians embraced it five thousand years ago, Germans made it their own.

Get it:
Goose Island has created a gift to the city of Chicago, 312 Urban Wheat Ale, named for her area code. Three Floyds serves a summer seasonal, Gumballhead, an American wheat beer with a hint of citrus. Piece puts Dark & Curvy on tap, a yummy dunkelweizen, whose nose reminds me of chocolate-covered bananas. Two Brothers proffers Ebel's Weiss, a classic unfiltered, German hefeweizen.

Serve it:
Serve weissbier cold in tall, thick-bottomed, thin-walled vessels; traditional glassware has a heavy base with long gentle curves that widen at the top.

Somehow weizens have come to be served with lemon slices. I doubt this was envisioned by seventeenth-century German brewmasters. Lemons never touch the weiss' brewing process; yeasts yield citrus scents. My opinion is: "Don't plunk a hunk of Limburger in your pink lemonade though they may be complementary." My advice: skip the lemons.

Eat with it:
Weiss is very versatile. Try it with Thai or Viet foods, riffing off each other's citrus characteristics. Weizens also pair well with seafood and salads. Plus, the carbonation and acidity can penetrate even the heaviest hollandaise or Alfredo sauce.

Entertain with it:
Dig out your lederhosen, assemble a Spring shindig, dance widdershins (counterclockwise) and sync' up samples of domestic and imported weissbiers with fresh salads and fish dishes. Seek a dunkelweizen (dark weiss) as a deep dark treat. Ladies and lads will long for your liberal libations.

Brewer says
"Wheat beers are dichotomous in the taste of the consumer," once said a hallowed brewmaster to me. "Some who seek a wheat (beer) love the complex esters and funky phenols. Others crave its thirst-quenching qualities." In my opinion, you can't go wrong either way.