Wheat

American Wheat Beer

BJCP 1D

A wheat beer without the German yeast: clean, crisp, and often hopped with American varieties. The wheat gives body and head, and everything else is left to the recipe.

Vital statistics

Each bar is drawn against the full range of all 98 styles

Original gravity

1.040 - 1.055

Final gravity

1.008 - 1.013

Bitterness

15 IBU - 30 IBU

Colour

3 SRM - 6 SRM

Alcohol

4% - 5.5%

Colour also 6-12 EBC

What goes wrong

Using a weizen yeast. Banana and clove take it straight out of style; this one wants a neutral American strain.

Commercial examples

Bell's OberonBoulevard Unfiltered Wheat BeerGoose Island 312 Urban Wheat AleWidmer Hefeweizen

Reference examples of the style, as listed in the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines. Availability varies by market and year.

Vital statistics as published in the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines. Not yet checked against the published guidelines: treat these ranges as a planning aid and read the source at bjcp.org before entering a competition.

The rest of the wheat family

10A

Weissbier

4.3-5.6% · 8-15 IBU

10B

Dunkles Weissbier

4.3-5.6% · 10-18 IBU

10C

Weizenbock

6.5-9% · 15-30 IBU

24A

Witbier

4.5-5.5% · 8-20 IBU

Plan a batch to these numbers.

Bitterness Colour Alcohol