Beer & Cider

Adelaide brewer helps pioneer new beer style putting an Aussie spin on a classic European Style

Aussie Wheat Ale is a modern take on the traditional wheat beer, tailored specifically to Australian tastes using wheat grown by Aussie farmers, with notes of citrus and a sunshine-like colour.

Photo: Pirate Life head brewer Lewis Maschmedt and brewing team leader Sam Petering

A top Adelaide brewer has helped to create the country’s newest and uniquely Australian style of beer.

Aussie Wheat Ale is a modern take on the traditional wheat beer, tailored specifically to Australian tastes using wheat grown by Aussie farmers, with notes of citrus and a sunshine-like colour.

It is the brainchild of some of the country’s leading beer experts and brewers who felt Aussies deserved a beer style they could truly call their own, including Pirate Life Head Brewer Lewis Maschmedt.

They came together to come up with the ultimate Aussie beer, asking themselves: what do Australians love in a beer?

It was a no-brainer that the ultimate Aussie beer needs to showcase top-quality Aussie ingredients. It should also be light and bright, with a fresh and zesty aroma, while staying approachable and refreshing.

The result was Aussie Wheat Ale: a contemporary twist on the traditional wheat beer, using techniques to create a flavour profile that will appeal to modern beer lovers.

Most Australian beer uses barley as the dominant ingredient. Substituting a proportion of barley with premium wheat malt grown right here under the Aussie sun 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.

Lewis said wheat beer had always been a style near and dear to his heart. “One of the first beers I ever brewed with (Pirate Life co-founder) Jack Cameron, back when we were homebrewing, was a Hefeweizen which exploded in my kegerator and made an absolute mess of my kitchen!” he recalls.

“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.”

He said where German and Belgian beers can turn away some Australians with big banana and clove spice characters, Pirate Life leant into crisp and refreshing citrus characters designed for warm sunny days.

“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,” Lewis said.

“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 enjoyed brewing it.”

Australian grain producer Andrew Weidemann is supplying wheat to Pirate Life’s Aussie Wheat Ale and praised the craft beer industry for its focus on using local grains.

“I think it’s fantastic that the craft brewing industry is sourcing local origin grains. It means the brewers are able produce a quality product and farmers are able to enjoy it when it ends up on the shelf,” he said.

“It’s great for us to have another outlet for our grain and we continue to try to ensure the quality of the wheat matches the quality of the beer.”

As well as Pirate Life, Matilda Bay, Mountain Goat and 4 Pines have created their own unique take on the new style.

The all-new Aussie Wheat Ales are available now at Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores, while 4 Pines will be released in August.

Pirate Life, Matilda Bay, Mountain Goat and 4 Pines are part of the Carlton & United Breweries family.

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