Style: American Wheat Beer

All Styles

Style Profile based on 1,299 recipes

BU:GU

0.45

Hops

4.2 g/L

Mash pH

5.61

Dry hop

0.2 g/L

Style Guidelines BJCP 2015 Beer
OG
1.04 1.055
1.052
FG
1.008 1.013
1.012
IBU
15 30
23
ABV
4% 5.5%
5.3%
SRM
3 6
Description

Refreshing wheat beers that can display more hop character and less yeast character than their German cousins. A clean fermentation character allows bready, doughy, or grainy wheat flavors to be complemented by hop flavor and bitterness rather than yeast qualities. History: An American craft beer adaptation of the German weissbier style using a cleaner yeast and more hops, first widely popularized by Widmer in the mid-1980s. Style Comparison: More hop character and less yeast character than German weissbier. Never with the banana and clove character of German weissbier. Generally can have the same range and balance as Blonde Ales, but with a wheat character as the primary malt flavor.

Examples: Bell’s Oberon, Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer, Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale, Widmer Hefeweizen

Typical Grain Bill

% of total grain weight across all recipes · sums to ~100%

Common Additions

% of American Wheat Beer recipes using each malt category (addition % in brackets)

Hop Usage by Addition Type

g/L · median with IQR range

Bittering
0.35 g/L 1.37 g/L
0.73 g/L
Flavour
0.37 g/L 1.37 g/L
0.73 g/L
Aroma
0.52 g/L 1.5 g/L
0.84 g/L
Whirlpool
0.53 g/L 1.94 g/L
1.07 g/L
Dry Hop
0.63 g/L 2.73 g/L
1.37 g/L

Common Hops

% of American Wheat Beer recipes using each hop

Common Fermentables

Colour = malt category · bar = % of recipes

Typical Water Profile

Ca²⁺ 75 ppm
Mg²⁺ 5 ppm
Na⁺ 10 ppm
Cl⁻ 75 ppm
SO₄²⁻ 80 ppm
HCO₃⁻ 51 ppm

median across recipes with a declared water profile

Similar Styles

Ranked by similarity across OG, IBU, ABV, hop rate, and grist composition.