Wheat Beers, Wheat Beers Everywhere

Midsummer's Day has come and gone so what's Sir John been up to?

There are changes afoot at Capital. Sadly, the Fest beer has been retired as the summer seasonal and been replaced by this:



Prairie Gold is a Belgian blonde ale and is on tap at my current drinking establishment of choice, The Malt House.

Brewmaster Kirby Nelson's decent into ale madness continues with a new year-round brew.



Rustic Ale is an American amber ale which should appeal to locovores with its use of grains from Washington Island just like Capital's Island Wheat.

Lastly there's the latest entry in Kirby's Capital Square Series, the Baltic Porter.



The brewery describes it as "a dark hybrid of British and Baltic persuasion. Part porter. Part lager." I believe that both this and the Rustic Ale have been around for a while but it wasn't until the past couple weeks that I actually saw bottles of the stuff at Woodman's.

The folks out west in Spring Green at Furthermore have a new brew out which was introduced to an innocent public on 28 June.



Check out the first look over at the Madison Beer Review. It's described as a "Mexican-style, warm fermented lager" with an infusion of coffee from Nicaragua. Furthermore is to be commended for almost never being in the middle of the road and instead preferring the ditch on either side. It's also a great testament to the beer drinkers of the area that the brewery can get away with an A.P.A. containing pepper and a smoky stout as year-round brews.

Up nort at Viking Brewing are offering Dim Whit this month.



It's a Beglian Wit with coriander with ginger replacing the more typical orange essences.

It's probably my lack of motivation but I want to point out that, while Viking's year-round offerings are easy to find, their seasonals are more of a hit-or-miss proposition here in Madison. As I said, perhaps this is just where I go to purchase beer. I've never seen their bracketts for sale here nor most of their fall/winter beers. And it seems that I've seen less of the spring/summer brews this year than in the past. Admittedly, beer distribution is a bit of an enigma to me.

Wheat beers seem to have captured the imagination of Point with two new beers this year, both of which indulge in the grain.



Firstly we have Horizon Wheat which will be available year-round.



Secondly there's Nude Beach, a wheat ale. It's a summer seasonal and features a slightly prurient label with sunbathers laying about the beach with their naughty bits strategically covered. I am forced to wonder if this beer came about because of the runaway success of Capital's Island Wheat. Regardless, fans of Capital's brew should enjoy this stuff.

Sprecher takes a slightly different tack than most breweries during the summer months with their Mai Bock being the seasonal.



However, they do offer a Hefe Weiss for consumption any time of year. As well as a pair of African style brews.



Both Mbege and Shakparo are brewed with sorghum and millet. The absence of barley and wheat means that Cheeseheads who cannot stomach gluten have more local beer options. To my knowledge Lakefront's New Grist was the only beer brewed in the state that was Celiac-friendly. I bring this up because not only are Mbege and Shakparo pretty tasty but also because they've got from Limited Release status to year-round.

Speaking of Lakefront, here's their summer seasonal:



Their White Beer is a Belgian wheat with the traditional coriander and orange.

To the south in Swiss country, Dan Carey is making July a fine month for beer.



The Edel Pils has been my de facto beer of the season so far this summer and will be around until the end of the month.



Taking over will be the Dancing Man Wheat, a potent Hefe Weizen. Honestly, I am not a big fan of wheat beers but will indulge occasionally and I must admit that I really love Dancing Man with its shades of clove.

Also due this month is another wheat beer, this time from the limited edition Unplugged series - Berliner Weiss. The sour/tart profile of the beer is tempered with grapes.

From the Chippewa Valley comes Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.



It's a Weiss bier with lemonade. I've read that it has proven quite popular along with their Sunset Wheat. Indeed, the Sunset Wheat is now being offered on Delta Air Lines flights. They just know how to mix beer with citrus fruit and make it appealing to a mass audience. I've not had the Summer Shandy but have had Sunset Wheat and I found the orange to be cloying. Still, these beers could make a name for the brewery on the other side of the Mississippi so more power to 'em.

Sand Creek does their thing up in Black River Falls. It has been a long time since I've had one of their brews, much to my shame.



Woody's Wheat would, I am sure, make a nice drink on a hot July day. But I'd also like to point out their Hard Lemonade.



Truth be known, I am not a big drinker of hard lemonade nor ciders so I have few points of comparison. Having said that, I really enjoyed Sand Creek's take on the stuff. It wasn't nearly as sweet as the other brands I've had and so it retained more of the tartness that lemonade should have. Good stuff.

River Falls is home to Rush River Brewing. Unfortunately, they aren't distributed in these parts.



If you find yourself up in the River Falls or parts north, check out their beer. The Small Axe Golden Ale is brewed for summer quaffing.

Another brewery with limited distribution that doesn't include Madison is the rather new O'So Brewing Company. They're in Plover, which is near Stevens Point. They brew several beers with Summer Storm being their summer seasonal. It's described as "a unique light bodied, easy drinking Belgian style wheat thingy".

O'So is available in the central parts of the state.

In nearby Amherst is Central Waters. (Folks around Stevens Point are just being inundated with microbrews.) Luckily their beers are distributed around here.



Whitewater Weizen is their summer brew, although I haven't seen it on shelves here in Madison.

Returning to Milwaukee, the Cream City is now home to another brewery - Buffalo Waters. At this point, they have only one beer.



The folks behind Buffalo Waters are apparently simpatico in that they, like myself, love spicy food. They sought the perfect beer to complement Buffalo wings and came up with Bison Blonde lager. While I've had the brew, I've not had it with Buffalo wings.

Heading back towards home, Tyranena presents it own seasonal.



Also look for brewmaster Rob Larson's next entry in his Brewers Gone Wild! series: Scurvy. It is an Extra IPA with orange peel.

I'll round things out close to home.

First the summer seasonal at the Ale Asylum is, unsurprisingly, a wheat beer – Hatha-Weizen. I hear that they also have a bock available too but, since I've not been there in ages, I cannot confirm this. (Despite not having gone there, I have, however, had a fair amount of their brew this summer.)

Lastly, Fauerbach's CB Bock is available. Not sure where, exactly. It is the result of the Fauerbach Challenge Brew competition which was won by Fred Gray and his Dark American Lager. Get the skinny from the Madison Beer Review.

Some random beer notes:

** Joe Walts' plans for the RePublic Brewpub continue. His mint porter was unleashed on an unsuspecting public last month at the Furthermore Barn Party. Here's Joe's recap.

** The Angelic Brewing Company has closed. Not that beer has been brewed there in ages.

** Stone Brewing has moved into Wisconsin.

** The Miller (SABMiller) and Coors (Molson Coors) merger is complete. I don't think the location of the corporate headquarters has been announced but odds are it's not going to be Milwaukee.

** The Belgian company InBev continues to pursue Anheuser-Busch. In fact, they're selling stock to raise cash for the takeover bid. In fending off InBev, A-B is cutting costs including spending $38 million less in radio advertising. This can't be good for the prospects of Budweiser American Ale, to be released later this year.