On a recent trip to Steve's Liquor (the one at University & Midvale), I was pleasantly surprised to find single half-liter bottles of Hacker-Pschorr Anno 1417 Kellerbier as well as singles of a brand of Kölsch that I cannot recall. (Probably either Sunner or Gaffel.) There were six-packs of lagers, dunkels, Oktoberfests, and many weissbiers but they don't represent all the styles of German bier. (They all seemed to be by the same 6 breweries too.) And so it was nice to see a couple of lesser-known styles represented at all.
It got me thinking: are weissbiers getting trendy, if only slightly? I'm not expecting them to match the IPA or abbey ale in popularity but it seems that they're creeping upwards on onwards. In Bavaria, weissbier now has a 36% market share, the largest of any style in the region. This may go a long way in explaining why there are so many weissbiers on store shelves here in Madison but people must be buying it.
Locally, Wisconsin brewers generally have a weissbier somewhere in their line-up. They don't garner a lot of attention but they are there year after year. Sprecher's Hefe Weiss is a year-round brew while Tyranena's Fargo Bros. Hefeweizen is available in May only. (And solely on draft now, unfortunately.) Sand Creek has Woody's Wheat and Central Waters brews Whitewater Weizen seasonally. South Shore brewed its Bavarian Wheat for its brewpub this past summer. Down in New Glarus, Dan Carey has pretty much had a weissbier available since the brewery started. Dancing Man Wheat is the latest from him. It's been brewed for the last few years and is slated to return in 2011.Capital brewed its Kloster Weizen for the first time in a while, although it was only available on tap. But brewmaster Kirby Nelson also brewed Weizen Doppelbock for his Capital Square series and it got great reviews. Lastly, I'll note that the shiny new Milwaukee Brewing Company released a Dunkel Weiss this past spring.
Further afield, Sierra Nevada added Kellerweis Hefeweizen to its year-round line-up last year. Samuel Adams has Dunkelweizen. And, Lord help us all, even Michelob has a weissbier – Dunkel Weisse. Plus I'm sure there are other breweries here in Wisconsin and elsewhere that have recently entered into the fray. (Any notable additions?)
I'm not expecting to see bourbon barrel-aged dunkelweisses on store shelves anytime soon nor extreme weissbiers that require a new scale to be created to measure esters.* (However, if anyone wants to try to create a Hefeweizen/kriek hybrid full of cherry and ester goodness, I volunteer to be a taste tester.) But it just seems like the weissbier has been able to carve out a slightly larger niche for itself as of late.
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* I just know there is an ester measurement scale already but have no idea what it is. Do you use an esterometer?
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