Wheat

The Hefeweizen beer style is a top-fermented, unfiltered, cloudy beer style and belongs to the ales class with around 5% alcohol. At least 50% wheat must be used in its production before it can be called a Hefeweizen. It is particularly popular in southern Germany. A Munich resident certainly cannot do without his cool, blonde Hefeweizen, which he drinks comfortably in a beer garden under a chestnut tree. Together with white sausages, pretzels and sweet mustard, a sunny summer day cannot be better. In Bavaria, Hefeweizen is often called Weissbier or simply Weizen or Hefe.

Its taste is impressive with banana aromas. In this beer style, the malt is in the foreground, with the hops and their bitterness being secondary and used only as a counterbalance.

Hefeweizen had almost died out in earlier times. As wheat reserves were given priority for the production of bread so that the population did not go hungry, beer production had to be almost completely stopped until further notice due to wheat shortages. Only the Wittelbach family had the monopoly on brewing Hefeweizen. When the ban was lifted, it took some time before the beer style regained popularity.

One of the most famous breweries that brewed wheat beer early on after the lifting of the brewing ban and even founded a pure wheat beer brewery was the Schneider Weisse brewery, which still exists today.