With the frail grip of winter hopefully letting go and spring making its presence felt, attention surely turns to those beers brewed to enjoy on a warm spring evening.

Wheat beer are particularly refreshing and pleasant with a meal. It’s a broad label that covers a range of styles, but for most folk refers to two distinct types, Belgian and German. Clean and crisp, these beers are often sweet and dry, and fermented using special wheat-friendly yeast that helps develop style-defining flavours such as banana and cloves, as well as fruity flavours like lemon, apricot and grapefruit. In general, they’re golden yellow, sometimes paler, other times darker, but almost always murky and hazy.
 

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In Germany, the strict Reinhetsgebot beer purity law kept things simple for brewers prevented from adding anything fancy to their brews. For them it was only malted barley, hops, water and yeast, though wheat sneaked in by a quirk of history, leading to the evolution of weiss and hefeweizen beers. Meanwhile, across the border in Belgium, brewers threw in all manner of spices and fruits, such as coriander and orange, into their brews, and often using a variant of their own distinctive Belgian yeast.

In general, wheat beers tend to be made with about 55% malted wheat. Its use, explains Top Out’s head brewer Michael Hopert, helps make the beer lighter and sweeter, adds a mellow taste, and gives more of a body. It also helps with head retention, so the top of your pint resembles a snow drift. Michael also emphasises the importance of using the proper yeast.

While these beers have been brewed on the continent for centuries, Scottish breweries are developing their own versions, looking to Germany and Belgium for influence.

FIVE GREAT (SCOTTISH) WHEAT BEERS

Schmankerl by Top Out (4.9%)

You’d expect Top Out to nail this style (head brewer Michael is from Frankfurt), and they do. Made with wheat beer yeast imported from Bavaria and propagated in Top Out's Edinburgh home, Schmankerl has an aroma of grapefruit and wind-battered washing, with sweet flavours of tropical fruits, green apple and dried orange. A soft bitterness brings this lovely beer to a refreshing, satisfying close.

Wanderlust Wheat by Six Degrees North (4.6%)

An aroma of bread and tangy yeast from the Belgian-focused Aberdeenshire brewery. Less foam than its German cousin, though it's both smooth and tickly on the tongue. A burst of fruity, some spicy life, then a quick cleansing and thirst-quenching finish, with echoes of cherry and honey sweetness.

Hefe by Stewart Brewing (5.4%)

Stewart’s own wheat beer pours lively with a fluffy head and an attractive, opaque colour. Its aroma is pungent yeast, with a good hit of cloves and tart citrus, think grapefruit at the dentist’s. An initial sour hit is followed by a medium bitter and crisp and well balanced finish.

Wave Beer by Jaw Brew (4.7%)

One of the Glasgow’s brewery’s best beers, Wave pours a typical light and hazy yellow; the head thick and creamy. A deep inhalation delivers aromas of sweet bread and tangerines, as well as the ubiquitous banana and a handful of cloves. Well-balanced and well-made, this medium-bodied weiss beer finishes sweet and satisfying.

Weizen by Windswept Brewing Co (5.2%)

A smooth Scottish take on the traditional German hefeweizen. Darker than others, the caramalt in Windswept’s version makes its mark on both the beer’s colour (also hazy) and the flavour: caramel notes among the punch bowl of bananas, bubblegum and cloves, as well as flavours of citrus and spices. You’ll probably find some soft stonefruits in there, too.