Traditional wheat beer has been completely reinvented for the Australian palette using premium locally grown ingredients in the country’s newest beer creation: Aussie Wheat Ale.
Leading Australian brewers and beer experts asked themselves: “What do Australians love in a beer?”
They believe that the answers are ingredients grown by Aussie farmers, light and bright like the Aussie sun, with a fresh and zesty aroma, while staying approachable and refreshing.
And they say the result is a style that has never been crafted before.
Most Australian beer uses barley as the dominant ingredient. Substituting a proportion of barley with premium Australian wheat malt gives this new beer a soft fluffy head with subtle aroma, delicate malt sweet taste and bright haze that glows like sunlight in the glass.
Some of Australia’s most well-known breweries Matilda Bay, Mountain Goat, Pirate Life, 4 Pines and Green Beacon Brewing Co have all come up with their own unique take on the new style.
One of the brewers who helped to create Aussie Wheat Ale is Matilda Bay’s Phil Sexton, who produced the iconic Redback in 1984 – a wheat beer made mostly in the traditional German hefeweizen style – describes Matilda Bay’s Aussie Wheat Ale as somewhere between “a pacific ale style and a Redback”.
“There’s a little bit of baggage with traditional wheat beers. Some people think of wheat beer as a heavy flavour and that doesn’t necessarily fit our Australian lifestyle and climate,” he said.
“Aussie Wheat Ale is unlike anything that you might’ve tried in the past. It’s a beer style that Australians can call their own, knowing that they’ll be supporting our farmers while enjoying a refreshing and modern Aussie beer,” he said.
Rethinking yeast was the first step in creating a wheat beer for modern tastes. Mr Sexton said instead of the traditional Belgian or German yeast style, a neutral, clean-fermenting yeast that “really lets the wheat talk” makes the Aussie Wheat Ale unique.
“We’ve paired some of the country’s best brewing wheat with a new and exciting hop, Australian Eclipse, to give us a very fresh and vibrant beer that takes the wheat beer category in a very new direction,” Phil said.
Pirate Life Head Brewer, Lewis Maschmedt, said Pirate Life’s Aussie Wheat Ale leant into crisp and refreshing citrus characters designed for warm sunny days.
“It was exciting for the brew team to be able to put a uniquely Aussie spin on this classic European style not only by making the recipe our own but by brewing it with Australian grown and malted wheat,” Mr Mashmedt said.
“The beer has a soft citrusy aroma which carries across onto the palate and the rich textural
mouthfeel that wheat creates is accentuated by a slightly higher than usual carbonation.
“Our Aussie Wheat Ale is best enjoyed with a wedge of orange in the glass as the aromas and acids will pair perfectly with the light refreshing ale. We hope that you enjoy drinking this beer as much as we enjoy brewing it.”
Barrett Burston Malting is one of the malt suppliers for Aussie Wheat Ale. Marketing and Sales Manager Steph Howard said Barrett Burston Malting had been supplying local breweries and supporting local farmers now for 160 years.
“We source only the highest quality wheat from a select few local growers and value our long-term relationship we have formed with each of them,” she said.
“Being able to make the connection from our growers to a customer is truly awesome. I know
speaking to our growers they love to see the final product that all their hard work goes into.”
Aussie Wheat Ales by Matilda Bay, Mountain Goat and Pirate Life are available now at Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores nation-wide, while 4 Pines will release their Aussie Wheat Ale in August.
Green Beacon’s Mollyhawk Aussie Wheat Ale is only available in NSW and QLD stores.
Pirate Life, Matilda Bay, Mountain Goat, 4 Pines and Green Beacon Brewing Co are part of the Carlton & United Breweries family.
