A nice little hefeweizen..

ROCK ON!

Though I would say...if they called it something more honest, like "Wheat Ale," I'd let by-gones be by-gones.

BAH! If you're in Casper, Wyoming, then you should have either available to you there or close enough Tabernash Weiss and Flying Dog's "In Heat Wheat." Both are true to style and put SHITE like Pyramid or Widmer to SHAME. Get out there and look around, man.

Well, Bill, you're gonna get flambeed for this one. This is an old subject of contention in the beer newsgroups, this thing about "American wheat" beers, particularly the ones that insist on using the Germanic "Hefeweizen" term because "wheat ale" just doesn't have the same zing (and never mind that the vast majority of 'Merkins can't pronounce "Hefeweizen" correctly anyway). We tend to blame Widmer Hefeweizen for the original misappropriation of the style's name. In the most literalist sense, sure, American wheats are unfiltered, so they have yeast ("hefe") and they have wheat ("weizen"). In the broader sense of style, they do nothing but muddle the issue, confusing drinkers as to what a Hefeweizen should taste like. This amiguity would be absent if only they chose to employ the term "American wheat." Taken on their own, they're not particularly interesting beers, but can be somewhat refreshing on a warm summer's day, and still preferable to megaswill.

There are American-brewed Hefeweizens done in the Bavarian style. Someone's already mentioned Tabernash, down in Colorado; their Bavarian-style wheat beers are exemplary. The Gordon Biersch brewpub in my hometown brewed up a spiffy batch of Hefeweizen this past summer. There's a brewery on the east coast (High Point, I think it's called) that does the Rammstein wheat beers. Seek 'em out and try 'em, particularly the Tabernash, if any such beers are available in your out-of-the-way neck of the woods.

Time to break out the broken record:

Hefeweizen just means what beer with yeast present. It says nothing about flavor. Technically, they are correct. They're not calling it Bavarian-style hefeweizen. No deception. Trying the reverse of guilt by association? Sure. But, no matter how bland, it's still hefeweizen in the literal sense of the word.

-Steve

You have to have it FedEx'd from the trailer park in Georgia?

Bavarian-style

"Hefeweizen" means wheat beer with yeast present IN GERMAN, AUF DEUTSCH. This creates an expectation of German-ness, Bavarian by implication. Pyramid/Redhook/Widmer "Hefeweizen" does not deliver on this expectation. If someone lists "fromage" on their otherwise English menu card, I (at least partially) expect French cheese. I don't expect white American.

If someone offered you a used car, wouldn't you be surprised if they delivered a battered railway freight car? Hey, it's still a car!

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But no, the Colorado contingent is poorly represented in Casper. I'm talking New Belgium, Boulder, 1 Breckenridge beer, O'Dells and that's all.

Both are true to style and put

Sure, no problem.

Best regards, Bill

"Bill Becker" wrote in news:bjmifq$kh21b$1@ID-

Good lord, man, hop in the car and go for a drive. Find a good beer shop in Colorado and make a day of it.

I'd do that(I've got a fav shop in Ft. Collins) if I can just get some days off!!!

Best regards, Bill

Using a German-language term in an English-speaking country certainly makes one expect something German-style, though. If I were to serve "sushi" that consisted solely of Gorton's Fish Sticks, would you not be unpleasantly surprised?

Around and around they go, where it stops...

-- Joel Plutchak Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots

"Resorting to personal harassment is a tactic of desperation."

You mean that's not how it's supposed to be served?

-Steve

Have you been out in that part of the country? Just getting from Casper to the Colorado border is a full day of it.

-Steve