Glassware
Weizen glass
A tall vase built around the enormous head that wheat beer produces — the extra volume above the beer is deliberate, not decorative.
Shape
A tall vase, narrow at the base and widening substantially toward the top.
Typical capacity 500 ml.
Drawn to scale against the other glasses BeerHQ lists, so heights and widths can be compared between pages.
What it does
- Builds head. Shape and internal surface encourage bubble nucleation, producing and sustaining foam on the pour.
- Holds head. The rim and wall angle support a standing head rather than letting it collapse.
- Concentrates aroma. An inward-curving rim traps volatile aromatics above the beer, so more of them reach the nose.
- Manages sediment. Extra headroom and a wide body allow a bottle-conditioned beer to be decanted off its yeast.
A 500 ml Weissbier is normally served in a glass holding well over 500 ml, because the head can occupy a third of it. The wide top gives the foam somewhere to go and holds the banana and clove aromatics above the beer.
Styles served in it
- Weissbier
Bavarian wheat beer defined by its yeast: pronounced banana and clove over a soft, cloudy, highly carbonated body.
- Kristallweizen
A filtered Weissbier: the same banana-and-clove character in a brilliantly clear beer with a lighter, crisper body.
- Dunkelweizen
A dark Bavarian wheat beer where banana and clove meet bread crust and light caramel from Munich malt.
- Weizenbock
A strong wheat beer combining Weissbier yeast character with bock malt depth — banana and clove over dark fruit and bread.
- American wheat beer
A wheat beer fermented with clean American yeast: soft body and lasting head, without the banana and clove.
- Roggenbier
A German rye beer, spicy and full-bodied, fermented with Weissbier yeast for banana and clove alongside rye’s pepper.
- Witbier
A Belgian wheat beer brewed with unmalted wheat, coriander and orange peel — soft, hazy, citrusy and lightly spiced.
- Gose
A lightly sour German wheat beer with added salt and coriander — tart, savoury and unusually thirst-quenching.
- Alcohol-free wheat beer
An alcohol-free wheat beer — often the most convincing of the category, because wheat body and yeast esters survive dealcoholisation well.