American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
(Courtesy Allagash Brewing)
Untappd is a popular geosocial networking service and mobile phone app that allows its users to rate the beers they’re drinking, and share those check-ins and their locations with their friends.
And with 2021 now in the rear view mirror, Untappd recently named the platform’s most popular wheat beers.
A “wheat beer” really refers to any beer where a substantial portion of the grain used in brewing is wheat. Generally they’re hazy, citrusy, brews and have fuller mouthfeel. They’re also difficult to brew.
Most craft beer’s you’ll come across are brewed primarily with malted barley which is much easier to use than a wheat grain bill. Allagash Brewing, who make some of the best wheat beers in the world, explains their complexity this way…
“Wheat beers are exceptionally hard to brew because the proteins and starches in the grain want to bind, making it trickier to extract the sugars. These same proteins that make wheat great for baking.”
Within the Wheat Beer family there are several stylistic varieties including…
Witbier – With origins that can be traced back 14th century Belgium, the Witbier, which translates from Dutch to “white beer,” is brewed with Belgian yeast which impart fruity and spicy flavors. They are typically brewed with coriander and citrus or other spices added and are always cloudy.
Hefeweizen – German for “white beer,” Hefeweizens are brewed with up to 50% wheat and characterized by a strong presence of banana and clove, even vanilla or bubblegum, in the aroma and flavor.
American Wheat Beer – American versions of wheat beers use clean, American yeasts which don’t impart the heavy clove and banana character of German weiss beers or the fruity, spicy character of a Witbier. American wheat beers can range from clear to cloudy and have a more pronounced hop character than their more European counterparts.
And now (drum roll please)…
Untappd’s 10 Highest-Rated Wheat Beers of 2021
- Oberon Ale – Bell’s Brewery (Kalamazoo, MI)
Gumballhead – 3 Floyds Brewing Company (Munster, IN)- Teach’s Peaches – Edward Teach Brewing (Wilmington, NC)
- The Joy Bus WOW Wheat Ale – Four Peaks Brewing Company (Tempe, AZ)
- Surfcaster – Tree House Brewing Company (Charlton, MA)
- Allagash White – Allagash Brewing Company (Portland, ME)
- Double White Ale – Marble Brewery (Albuquerque, NM)
- Blood Orange Honey – Cheboygan Brewing Co. (Cheboygan, MI)
- Royal Blood – 3 Nations Brewing (Carrollton, TX)
- Beer for Golf – Off Color Brewing (Chicago, IL)
Founded by Greg Avola and Tim Mather in 2010, Untappd’s check-in’s provided the data used in this ranking.
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(H/T to Allagash Brewing for their considerable contribution to this piece)
