Brewery: Boulder Brewing Company
Where: Boulder Colorado
Style: American Pale Wheat Ale
IBU: N/A
ABV: 5.9%

Here we are today on the complete opposite end of the beer spectrum from an Imperial Stout.  Today's sample is a blonde ale (technically an American Pale Wheat Ale) from Boulder Brewing called "Sweaty Betty Blonde."  As you know, I'm also a fan of blonde ales, especially for summertime enjoyment.  This beer poured with a beautiful pale golden color and a short foamy head that subsided rather quickly.  Since this is a wheat beer, it definitely had that wheat characteristic in the flavor with a minimal hop presence to keep this drink just on the sweeter side of balance.  I couldn't find any detail on this beer from the brewer because their website refused to load for me at the time of this writing.  At any rate, I'm rather impressed with this beer.  It's got quite a crisp and light flavor that would be fantastic in quantities on a hot summer day.  From the bottle:

Irresistible.  Flirtatious.  Aromatic.  Soft.  Supple.  Unavoidable .  Smooth.  Exuberant.  Glistening.  Wild.  Firm.  Rare.  Succulent.  Luscious.  Ripe.  Natural.  Glowing.  Curvaceous.  Magical.  Wheat... and the 5th release of our Looking Glass Series of beers.

Betty's golden appearance reflects her smooth, light and friendly character.  Add subtle wheat flavors, a natural unfiltered glow, and you've got a perfectly balanced blonde wheat beer with a wild side. 

Sweaty Betty Blonde, the only wheat bold enough to take a trip through the Looking Glass.  Don't let her be the one that gets away.

Cute :)  My note of 5.9% alcohol came from a reference at beeradvocate.com.  If this beer has that level of alcohol then it's one to enjoy in slight moderation.  At any rate, this one is a keeper...

Brewery: Boston Beer Company
Where: Boston, MA
Beer: Samuel Adams Coastal Wheat
Style: American Pale Wheat Ale
IBU: N/A
ABV: 5.4%

In my humble opinion, wheat beers are some of the best thirst quenching brews for the hot summer months.  Their light body and sweet flavor with a minimal hop presence make a fantastic summertime beer choice.  The Coastal Wheat from the Samuel Adams Brewmaster's Collection is proving to be a formidable competitor in this style.  Most of the really good wheat beers that I have tasted are brewed with some sort of small spice element, whether it be coriander or a citrus addition.  A lot of them are slightly heavy on this aspect of the brew, but the Coastal Wheat has an infusion of lemon peel that creates a perfect balance within this beer.  Some may not like this comment, but this beer is going to rank somewhere near the level of the Bell's Oberon in my book.  If you are a fan of wheat beers, I suggest you try this one.  If you haven't tried Oberon, maybe you should pick up a sixer of that too and try them side by side. 

On a recent trip to the World Market, I picked up another mixed sixer from their singles shelf.  The Haywire Hefeweizen from Pyramid Breweries is a rather simple American style hefeweizen.  I don't mean simple in a negative way.  In fact, I really like this particular beer because of its simplicity.  Lots of brewers like to set their hefeweizens apart from the pack by spicing them with various seasonings and flavors, but this one is just what it should be... simple and to the point.  This beer poured with a beautiful golden color created by a combination of pale malt, malted wheat, and a very small addition of caramel malt.  The head did not stick around very long or provide any lacing on the glass.  At 5.2%, this beer falls into the normal range of alcohol content for a beer of this style. 

For unknown reasons, Pyramid recently change the name of their original Pyramid Hefeweizen to Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen, but it's the same beer. 

Here's another selection from the Samuel Adams Brewmaster's Collection. The Cherry Wheat is definitely easy to find and yet another great summertime brew for a hot day.  One of the greatest characteristics of this beer is the cherry aroma that arises from the use of Michigan cherries in the brewing process.  The cherry flavor is nicely subdued, but definitely present in the beer without being overpowering.  The combination of Michigan cherries and wheat malt create a crisp, refreshing, and very smooth flavor.  In my opinion, this beer is an excellent choice for a hot summer day after working in the yard or playing hard.  

I know you are familiar with my love of the Rogue Ales.  I don't think they make a bad beer, or at least I haven't tasted one yet that I could complain about.  Samuel Adams beers fall into that same category in general.  I haven't had a Samuel Adams brew yet that I really didn't like.  I don't thing that the offerings from the Boston Beer Company are quite on the same playing field as the Rogues, but they are just solid and consistent in their quality and taste.  The advantage you have with Sam Adams is availability.  You will find Sam Adams brews in a lot more grocery and convenient store coolers.  The Rogues come at a slightly higher premium.

This is my first attempt at a homebrewed wheat beer, and I'm completely impressed with it.  I brewed it on February 22, 2009 and bottled it on March 21, 2009.  I have been sampling it occasionally with the first sample being four weeks after bottling.  As of last week, this beer is prime.  I took a bunch of it to my graduation cookout to try on my fellow students, and several of them loved it.  That's not too bad considering none of them drink anything beyond BudMillerCoors.  The beer ultimately did not turn out exactly like I wanted it to though.  I called it "Orange Blossom Special" because I used orange blossom honey and orange peel in the boil.  I had hoped the orange peel would impart some slight citrus aroma, but it's too weak in that arena.  Maybe I didn't use enough peel.  The details of this brew are in my log if you want to check it out.  All I can say is that it's very tasty.  It rings up at 6.5% ABV.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California makes good brews. The great thing about these guys is that you can get their beers about anywhere. They aren't hard to find. Whether or not you can classify them as a micro or craft brewery is irrelevant because the beer is... well... just good beer.  Today's sampling is the Unfiltered Wheat beer.  This is another one of those excellent crisp American wheat beers that goes a long way towards quenching the thirst on a warm summer afternoon.  From the bottle:

Sierra Nevada Wheat Beer is a delicious, unfiltered beer brewed exclusively from premium malted wheat, the fines two-row malted barley and fresh whole hops.  Its cloudiness is the natural and wholesome result of not being filtered.  The natural sediment at the bottom of the bottle may be gently swirled and poured into your glass.

I guess that's rather generic, but SNBC didn't want to spend much time talking up this brew on the label.  I went to the website to look for some more information on this beer, and couldn't find it listed.  It may have been discontinued... go figure...

Someone commented to me earlier that the Bell's beers were really good. So, in my next assorted six-pack, I tossed in a Bell's Brewery Oberon Ale for a sampling.  The Oberon Ale is tagged as an American Wheat Ale and Summer Ale on the back label.  Like the Bell's Amber Ale I sampled previously, this beer is bottle conditioned and contains a light sediment in the bottle that provides the cloudy appearance in this wonderfully fruity and refreshing beer.  Oberon will be on my very short list of favorite summertime refreshing and thirst-quenching brews of choice.  The Paulaner Hefe-weissen that I sampled earlier is also high on this list. 

I'm going to be brewing my first batch of beer on Sunday.  I have everything in place to make that happen, and I'm out of school on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll be posting some stuff from the brewing experience the first part of next week.  I'll probably make some photos, or I may even shoot video instead since I haven't used my video camera lately. 

After tasting this Oberon and the recent sampling of the Paulaner, I might just brew a wheat beer as my second brew...