Here comes wheatwine

This isn’t necessarily news to anyone but me, but since it is new to me, I thought it warranted a post. 

Wheatwine!  Who knew there was such a thing?

My first introduction to wheatwine was Beer Advocate Magazine’s Volume II Issue I.  The Style Profile article by Don Russell explains that wheat wine started out comparable to barleywine: highly alcoholic, significantly malty (albeit tasting of wheat malt, not barley malt), and assertively bitter.  However, when Great American Beer Festival (GABF) formalized wheatwine as an official beer style, they specified that they’d be looking for beers with moderate to low bitterness. 

For those who feel lost and still don’t see where wine comes into this, the answer is…it doesn’t.  Neither barleywine nor wheatwine are wines, they are beers.  Wines ferment the sugar in grape juice, beers ferment the starch in cereal grains.  Barleywines take their name from their high alcohol content, usually 8% - 12%.  The GABF describes American Barleywine in their 2007 Style Guidelines as follows:

American style barley wines range from amber to deep copper-garnet in color and have a full body and high residual malty sweetness. Complexity of alcohols and fruity-ester characters are often high and counterbalanced by assertive bitterness and extraordinary alcohol content. Hop aroma and flavor are at medium to very high levels. American type hops are often used but not necessary for this style. Very low levels of diacetyl may be acceptable. A caramel and/or toffee aroma and flavor are often part of the character. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures.

This means that American barleywines are big on everything: big malt flavor, big hop flavor, big alcohol content — the works. 

Wheatwine is a new style of beer, and to refer to the Beer Advocate article again, Phil Moeller at Rubicon Brewing in Sacramento brewed the first one in the late 1980’s.  The essential difference between a barleywine and a wheatwine is that wheatwines are made from 50%+ wheat malt, whereas barleywine is all barley malt.  The GABF style guideline for wheatwine is:

American style wheat wines range from gold to deep amber and are brewed with 50% or more wheat malt. They have full body and high residual malty sweetness. Bitterness is moderate to low. Fruity-ester characters are often high and counterbalanced by complexity of alcohols and high alcohol content. Hop aroma and flavor are at low to medium levels. Very low levels of diacetyl may be acceptable. Bready, wheat and/or caramel aroma and flavor are often part of the character. Phenolic yeast character, sulfur, and/or sweet corn-like dimethylsulfide (DMS) should not be present. Chill haze is allowable.

My first thought when I saw this was, how is this different from a weizenbock?  Don’t we already have a more powerful wheat beer and isn’t a weizenbock it? To go back to the GABF again:

This style can be either pale or dark (golden to dark brown in color) and has a high starting gravity and alcohol content. The malty sweetness of a weizenbock is balanced with a clove-like phenolic and fruity estery banana element to produce a well rounded aroma and flavor. As is true with all German wheat beers, hop bitterness is low and carbonation is high. Hop flavor and aroma are absent. It has a medium to full body. If dark, a mild roast malt character should emerge in flavor and to a lesser degree in the aroma. If served with yeast the beer may be appropriately very cloudy. No diacetyl should be perceived. Brewer may indicate on the bottle whether the yeast should be intentionally roused or if they prefer that the entry be poured as quietly as possible.

So far as I can tell there are 3 main differences:

1. Phenolic yeast characteristic - certain yeast strains produce phenols which have an aroma of cloves.  This is characteristic of German weizen beers and is expected in a weizenbock but not in an American barleywine, or really any American beers that I can think of
2. Alcohol content - Wheatwines are about 8% - 12%, while weizenbocks are lower, clocking in at 7% - 9%
3. Option for roast malt character - The malt character of wheatwines is caramel-y and bread-y, whereas weizenbocks may be darker, with roast-y flavors like a dunkelweizen

If I got this wrong or missed something here, definitely leave a comment to let me know!

So if you’re now excited about all this wheatwine, and you’re in the Bay Area, Congrats!  You’re in one of the best places to enjoy it.  Here’s where to find wheatwine around here:

• Marin Brewing Company - Larkspur, CA - Marin Star Brew Triple Wheat Ale
• Rubicon Brewing Company - Sacramento, CA - Winter Wheat Wine
• Seabright Brewery - Santa Cruz, CA - Angel’s Food - again, as said by BeerAdvocate.com, couldn’t find it on the website

And for my friends who are elsewhere, there are a few other noteworthy wheatwines to look out for:

• Big Time Brewery & Alehouse - Seattle, WA - Old Sol Wheatwine Ale
• Smuttynose Brewing Company - Portsmouth, NH - Smuttynose Wheat Wine
• New Holland Brewing Company - Holland, MI - New Holland Pilgrim’s Dole