The Great Wheat Heat

As promised, I am bringing you a bona fide blind taste test. And this one is a BIG one.

Summer is burning its way through the States. Temperatures have been in the 90s here in the mountains of East Tennessee. That is record-breaking heat for June, and my air conditioning is out.

So what better way to beat the heat than a wheat heat? That’s right, a wheat beer blind taste test!

The 14 beers of our wheat beer taste test. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

The biggest problem is what beers to include. I chose 14 beers for this one. Yes, 14 beers. I chose beers with solid reputations and easy access, and I tried to spread the love around to the countries most known for wheat beer, which are Belgium, Germany, and the United States.

The contenders were as follow:

• St. Bernardus Wit
• Wittekerke
• Blanche de Bruxelles
• Hoegaarden
• Weihenstephaner
• Franziskaner
• Ayinger Brauweisse
• Cigar City’s Florida Cracker
• Harpoon’s UFO White
• Allagash White
• Dogfish Head’s Namaste
• Bell’s Oberon
• Blue Moon
• Shock Top

Confession time. I have always thought Germans did better with wheat beer, or weizenbier, than Belgium or the U.S. That opinion alone probably just ruined any Belgian street cred I ever had.

But what if we removed the labels and bottles and stripped the beers down to their bubbly effervescent essence? What beer would be summer’s emperor with no clothes?

I roped my wife into conducting the research for this study as she is not fond of wheat beers. She poured two rounds of seven beers for myself and my two fellow tasters. The three of us never knew what beers we were tasting.

After the first two rounds of seven, my wife took the top rated beers in each round and had a final taste-off round. The top five were: Hoegaarden, Ayinger, Franziskaner, Allagash White, and … Blue Moon.

Well, in the final round, my top pick was Allagash White. That surprised me. I hadn’t even tried it before.

It had a touch of skunkiness. But the flavors were really nice and fruity.

My second choice was a tie between Franziskaner, one of my all-time favorite beers, and … Blue Moon.

My two fellow blind tasters chose the same favorite beer. And both chose … Blue Moon.

So the overall winner, the king of all wheat beers, the sultan of summer suds is … Blue Moon.

OK, I know what you are thinking. Blue Moon? The ubiquitous witbier from U.S. brewing giant MillerCoors? Yes, the same.

I knew before I even conducted this test that Blue Moon might be a serious contender. I also knew that if Blue Moon won, there would be critics ready to pounce.

Blue Moon has been in a bit of legal hot water over its craft beer status or lack there of. But the beer is one of the most popular in the United States. And it even gets a “very good” 87 rating from the Alström Bros of BeerAdvocate fame.

So it’s a decent beer. It really is. And now there’s evidence to back it up.

Don’t hate. Don’t be “that guy,” the beer snob. Just embrace it.

When you are at that summer party and someone offers you a Blue Moon, it’s OK. You can take it. Just come back to this post and remind yourself that science is on your side.