American Wheat Beer, Another Point to Be Made

I forgot one important trend or sub-style, when I talked about American Wheat beers - the hoppy Wheat beer. These extremely refreshing beers have huge hop additions late in the wort boiling process; instead of adding bitterness, these late additions add hop flavor and aroma to the beer, without punching the bitterness through the roof of your mouth. Additional dry hopping of these beers adds more flavor and aroma, while still only minimally altering the bitterness. In many ways, the end product is similar to an American IPA, only with a lighter and wheatier malt flavor. Great examples of this much loved trend are Three Floyd's Gumball Head and Southern Tier's Hop Sun and Uber Sun (an imperial/stronger version of Hop Sun). A recipe for the West Town Brewing Co version of this style is the tribute beer Gumball Toe.