Peach Wheat vs. Wheach

The allure of a ripe peach is that when you bite into it, you’re rewarded with a gush of sweet juice. If you substitute that juice for beer, now we’re talking about a peach that adults might like.

Springtime brings all manner of ales and lagers, but it also is marked by the appearance of straw-colored sunshine in a pint glass: peach wheat. McCoy’s Public House has its Peach Wheat on tap and the O’Fallon Brewery’s Wheach is available in bottles. Kansas City is big enough for one fruit-based wheat beer. Let the battle commence.

McCoy’s Peach Wheat. A rich, tawny color, it looks light a slightly cloudier wheat. Taking a whiff near the top of the glass, there’s this sweet punch of peaches. It has the smell of the slightly candied bits of peach that make it into peach yogurt.

The taste is definitely more subtle. It’s a mellow wheat beer with fruity notes that come through as the beer warms — more of an inflection than an accent, which means that this is a clean, nice sipping beer for the sun.