Light, crisp and refreshing, American wheat beer, like this Widmer Hefeweizen, has a citrus flavor.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl Gretchen Ertl

Warm weather and cookouts are coming. That means dining and drinking outdoors and many a thirst turns to ice cold beer with a frothy head. But you don’t always have to reach for an American-style lager made with malted barley.

Last summer, I made wheat beers my seasonal favorite. Now I learn that I am not alone. While not taking the world by storm, and not new by any means, wheat beers are a fast-growing segment in the beer world. They’ve been among the darlings of brew pubs which specialize in craft and international beers. Now more beers made with malted wheat are appearing on drink menus in all manner of restaurants.

The world’s signature wheat beers come from Germany and Belgium and are brewed using recipes that date back hundreds of years.

But American microbrewers have gotten into the act making Hefeweizen, the most common of wheat beers. Widmer Brothers Brewing of Portland, Ore., began producing their American Hefeweizen 21 years ago. Samuel Adams began offering theirs in the widely available Brewmaster’s Collection of bottles in 2004. Both are on store shelves now.

At Trinity Brew Pub, they make their own wheat beers. Owner Josh Miller said indeed customers seem to be getting more familiar with them and requesting them. One is currently on the menu at his Providence pub, a Belgian White, and a Hefeweizen will be on soon.

“People seem to be asking for them more, understanding them better and enjoying them,” he said.

Ted Newcomer, corporate beverage manager for Providence’s Chow Fun Food Group, which operates 10 Prime Steak and Sushi, XO Steakhouse, Citron and Big Fish, said wheat beers from Germany and Belgium are on the drink menu at each of the restaurants.

“They’ve got a lot of good citrus flavors,” he said. “They are light, crisp and refreshing,” he said. Most of them are served with a lemon or orange slice to accent the flavors.

With all the knowledge and talk about food on the Internet and television, people are a little more daring about trying new things, he said. That includes beers.

Wheat beers were on the decline for many years but seem to have revived rather nicely, said Julie Johnson Bradford, editor of All About Beer, the 29-year-old magazine devoted to coverage of the industry along with its Web site www.allaboutbeer.com.

Both she and Newcomer credit Pierre Celis, a Belgian brewer and his Hoegaarden Brewery with breathing new life into Witbier (white beer is the Belgian style of wheat beer with yeast that creates spice flavors that include coriander and orange) in the 1960s. When Celis established his Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas, he became a leader in the microbrew movement in the 1990s.

Microbrews have had a dramatic effect on the market, nipping at the heels of the big beer guns like Budweiser and cutting into their share, said Newcomer.

Bradford said craft beers might only represent 12 percent of the market, but that is growth she categorized as “leaps and bounds in a very short time.”

What has this to do with wheat beer, you ask?

Expanding their portfolio, global beer giant Anheuser-Busch recently bought a minority interest in Widmer Brothers, which eases distribution to bring these crafted wheat beers to many more consumers. In fact, A-B has a financial interest in Hoegaarden, too.

Kurt Widmer, who founded Widmer with his brother and father back in 1984, recalled their early days when they could only make two beers with the equipment they had. When a customer asked them to add a third, they achieved this by not filtering their Hefeweizen. The cloudiness of the unfiltered beer was feared off-putting to those who eat or in this case, drink with their eyes, said Widmer. That’s why they first made a filtered version. But the flavor of their unfiltered Hefeweizen has won over beer lovers. Thus their best-selling wheat beer was born.

Imagine how great it is now for Widmer to have their beer made not only in the Portland, Ore., brewery, but in Anheuser-Busch’s Red Hook brewery in Portsmouth, N.H. It can now be delivered as fresh as can be to Rhode Island and the entire Eastern seaboard. They are of course, using the Widmer recipe and ingredients.

By July 1, there will be about 100 restaurants in Rhode Island serving Widmer Hefeweizen on tap, according to Charles M. Borkoski, vice president of marketing at Cranston’s McLaughlin & Moran, a distributor of Anheuser-Busch products. The beer will also be in stores in six-packs.

Widmer’s American-style Hefeweizen has citrus as the dominate flavor. It differs from the German style which imparts flavors of banana, clove and sometimes bubblegum. But Widmer lived in Germany for several years before returning home to the Northwest with a German yeast strain on which to base his beer. Each six-pack of the Widmer Hefeweizen explains how to pour it in four steps so none of the yeast will make it to the glass.

Like all enthusiastic brewers, Widmer takes his beer quite seriously. He also wants to see his beer poured slowly so the head imparts all the aromas that add to the taste. A wide mouth pilsner glass is the best vessel.

All About Beer’s Bradford said no doubt Widmer was the first to introduce an American-style Hefeweizen to the nation. With America’s beer palate expanding, it probably won’t be the last.

gciampa@projo.com