The recent announcement by General Mills and Fulton Beer of a collaboration brew that bears the name of the Breakfast of Champions has generated a buzz likely to be exceeded only by consuming the beer itself.
HefeWheaties may not contain actual Wheaties, but the name alludes to wheat’s starring role in both the iconic breakfast cereal and the Bavarian Hefeweizen beer style. The new ale, scheduled for an August 26 release in the Twin Cities area, is marketed as an American Hefeweizen, a style that bears little resemblance to the German eponym.
Bavarian Hefeweizen (which translates as “yeast-wheat”) contains at least 50 percent wheat malt by German law, but most traditional formulations are built around much more than that. As the name suggests, a signature of the style is the inclusion of a good deal of yeast right in the glass, which is as much a part of the beer’s cloudy appearance as wheat proteins. The style is also called Weißbier or simply Weiße, a reference to the ale’s light hue (Weiß, pronounced like “vice,” is the German word for white).