In the early 1980s, Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman traveled to Aschaffenburg, on the northwestern edge of Bavaria, Germany, just outside of Frankfurt. He was searching for brewery equipment, but was also trying lots of local beer. (You don’t travel to Bavaria without having a few beers, right?) During his tastings, he especially enjoyed the Hefeweizen style, a Bavarian wheat. He returned to Chico, Calif., the home of Sierra Nevada, with samples for fellow brewers and employees. This initiated the interest.
Then in the 90s and early 2000s, Grossman and his fellow brewers began experimenting with some of these recipes. With influence from the Hefeweizen style, he made an American-style wheat beer and used an American ale yeast. The beer had broader, fruity characteristics compared to the banana and clove notes of the Bavarian yeast. It still wasn’t what Grossman was looking for.
He then connected with Brauerei Gutmann, a German brewery based in a small town called Titting, about one hour south of Nuremberg. While the brewery allowed Grossman to work with their yeast strain, the first experiments didn’t turn out the way he had hoped. So he returned to Germany once more and had what Sierra Nevada communications manager Ryan Arnold called “a eureka moment.”
It was all about open fermentation.
With the standard closed fermentation, Grossman’s take on the Hefeweizen lacked a necessary balance. The banana trumped the clove, the clove trumped the banana.
“The open fermentation really allows some of those complex banana and clove characteristics to balance a little bit better,” Arnold said.
Sierra Nevada’s Kellerweis was born, providing what the brewery considers true to the German craft yet unique in its own right. While Kellerweis doesn’t possess the selling power of Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo, the best-selling IPA in off-premise retail accounts, according to IRI, it has fared well among other wheat beers. Arnold shared IRI data indicating that Kellerweis holds 2.3 percent of the wheat-style dollar share, the eighth most of all wheat beers.
As the craft industry has developed, Hefeweizens aiming for authenticity (a truly debatable distinction) have become an increasingly popular style. SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta makes its seasonal Waterkeeper Hefeweizen. Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles makes one. So does Boulder Beer Company and Widmer. The list goes on.
Sierra Nevada’s fourth annual Oktoberfest will take place on Oct. 4 and 5 at the brewery’s hop field. While you probably wouldn’t find Polkacide, a hardcore polka band from California, at a beer festival in Bavaria, Arnold said that the festival carries the spirit of a traditional German beer event. There’s a german-inspired buffet. They encourage lederhosen. And yes, of course, beer pervades.
Arnold said that these kinds of festivals have helped move American beer drinkers forward.
“All the breweries and the creativity involved, it seems like they’ve really encouraged drinkers to widen their palettes, to further develop their palettes, to appreciate some of these different beer styles,” he said. “It’s overall contributed to the greater education of the drinker.”
At the Belgian Comes to Cooperstown festival at Brewery Ommegang in upstate New York, Christian Bauweraerts, the founder of Belgian brewery Brasserie d’Achouffe, said that Sierra Nevada’s influence has been felt worldwide. He also said that while his brewery sells only about 5 percent of his 100,000 barrels to the U.S., many Belgian brewers export about 80 percent of their beer to the U.S.
“That’s what everyone wants,” Bauweraerts said.
The presence and influence of the Belgian breweries has contributed toward the authenticity of many Belgian-style ales, such as trippels, he said. While some of the Belgian beers have their own American feel, such as Allagash White and New Belgium’s Trippel, they follow traditions with a hazy, golden yellow appearance and a fruity, developing taste, among other traits.
Brewery Ommegang, the host of the festival, remains a part of the Duvel Moortgat family, which has been brewing Belgian ales since 1871. Brasserie d’Achouffe, also under Duvel’s wing, brews La Chouffe, a blond ale that holds more significance to Bauweraerts than its authenticity.
“This beer,” Bauweraerts said, “makes the bridge between America and Europe.”