HB&B Blog — Wheat beer

The Beer Lover’s Table: Mediterranean Orzo with Prawns and Marinated Feta and St Bernardus Wit

Beer Lover's Table Claire Bullen St Bernardus Wheat Beer Witbier

The Beer Lover’s Table: Mediterranean Orzo with Prawns and Marinated Feta and St Bernardus Wit

Remember beaches? The faraway ones, I mean. The ones that took a train and an airport bus and an ungodly early budget flight to reach? Remember the hassle of it all? The too-full carry-on bags and the boarding passes that wouldn’t scan properly and the obligatory Prêt breakfasts? Remember finally arriving, dropping off your suitcases, heading out of your Airbnb or hotel and feeling the sun of somewhere else on your shoulders? Sure, it was the same sun as the one you had back home, but it never felt like it. I recall reading a tweet early in lockdown that...

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The Beer Lover's Table: Stone Fruit Spoon Cake and Schneider Aventinus Tap 6 Wheat Doppelbock

Beer Lover's Table Cake Claire Bullen Germany Schneider Weisse Wheat beer

The Beer Lover's Table: Stone Fruit Spoon Cake and Schneider Aventinus Tap 6 Wheat Doppelbock

I discovered Jerrelle Guy's recipe for strawberry spoon cake, published in NYT Cooking, several months back – just in time to bring it along to a friend's backyard pizza party when lockdown restrictions lifted. It's not an exaggeration to say that it has single-handedly changed the course of my summer. Everything about this cake encapsulates the dog days of August: it's consummately lazy, comes together in 20 minutes and requires ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen. This is a cake you could plausibly whip up on a whim if it's late in the evening and you decide...

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The Beer Lover’s Table: Pad Thai with Crispy Tofu and Duration Brewing Promise Of Spring Norfolk Witbier

Beer Lover's Table Claire Bullen Duration Brewing Norfolk Thai Wheat beer

The Beer Lover’s Table: Pad Thai with Crispy Tofu and Duration Brewing Promise Of Spring Norfolk Witbier

People sometimes ask me how I come up with the inspiration for these columns – whether I begin with the beer or with a dish. The answer is: haphazardly, and the order of operations tends to vary month by month. In this case, I began with the beer. Duration Brewing’s Promise of Spring “Norfolk Witbier” is a 5% dream of a wheat beer, which drinks dry and clean and has only a minimal ester profile. It felt like the right thing for the seasonal transition: an optimistic omen of warm and sunny days ahead, of the end of a dreary,...

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Fundamentals #32 — Schöfferhofer Grapefruit Wheat Beer Mix

Fundamentals Germany Matthew Curtis Radler Schofferhofer Wheat Beer

Fundamentals #32 — Schöfferhofer Grapefruit Wheat Beer Mix

You’ve probably been reminded by your parents a few times this summer that it’s been the hottest since ‘76. And yes Mum, it has been quite a summer. Not only because of the seemingly unyielding heatwave, but due to an astonishing England World Cup run along with what I like to call “the redemption of Gareth Southgate”, it’s been a very pleasant season indeed. Perfect beer drinking weather, in fact. So, as fate would dictate, the moment a can of shandy lands on my desk to review, it starts tipping it down with rain. Typical. Well, technically the beer isn’t...

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The Beer Lover’s Table: Strawberry, Tomato and Mojama Salad with Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

Beer Lover's Table Claire Bullen Germany Hefeweisse Weihenstephaner Wheat Beer

The Beer Lover’s Table: Strawberry, Tomato and Mojama Salad with Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

For all the pleasure of discovering new breweries, the thrill of the can release, there’s an abiding satisfaction in returning to the classics. Not long ago, I realised it had been years since I’d enjoyed a bottle of Weihenstephan’s flawless Hefe Weissbier. Among the finest examples of the style around, heady with clove and banana, it’s far from trendy - novelty isn’t a virtue most associated with a brewery that traces its origins to 725 - but it’s gorgeous, ever-satisfying, and worth making a part of your regular rotation. That it’s additionally food-friendly is one more advantage. You’ll often find...

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