The story
Wheat beer has a royal history in Bavaria. For centuries, the right to brew it was a privilege controlled by nobility. In the sixteenth century the Degenberger family held it; when their line died out in 1602, the rights passed to the ruling Wittelsbach dukes, who turned wheat beer into a lucrative state monopoly and built brewhouses across the region.
By the nineteenth century wheat beer had fallen out of fashion, and in 1872 the Wittelsbachs sold brewing rights to Georg Schneider, whose family brewery still makes wheat beer today. The style declined again in the mid-twentieth century before roaring back in the 1960s and 1970s. Now it is one of the most loved beer styles in Germany and beyond.
What it tastes like
A hefeweizen pours a hazy straw to golden colour, cloudy from suspended yeast, beneath a towering, long-lasting white head. The aroma is its calling card: ripe banana and spicy clove, sometimes with a hint of bubblegum or vanilla. On the palate it is soft, creamy and bready from the wheat, with barely any bitterness. Lively carbonation keeps it fresh, and the finish is gently tart and refreshing.
How it’s made
German law requires wheat beer to use at least half malted wheat, and many recipes use 50–70% wheat with the rest barley malt. Hops are used very lightly. The magic is in the yeast: special weizen strains produce isoamyl acetate (the banana ester) and 4-vinyl guaiacol (the clove phenol). Brewers tune the balance through fermentation temperature — warmer tends to favour banana, cooler tends to favour clove. The beer is left unfiltered (“hefe” means yeast).
Fun fact
Weihenstephan, just north of Munich, claims to be the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world, tracing its roots to 1040. Also, if you add a lemon wedge to your weissbier in Bavaria, expect a raised eyebrow — locals say it ruins the head and masks the yeast.