THE popularity of wheat beer waxes and wanes. The grain has been used for brewing since ancient Egyptian times and archaeologists have discovered that even in its heartland - Bavaria - wheat was used in beer-making way back in 800BC. When the German purity law - the Reinheitsgebot - was passed in 1516, ruling that beer could only be made with water, hops and barley, wheat beer was the first brew to be given an exemption.
But by the 1880s, even the Germans were losing their taste for wheat beers and many breweries were forced to close. But they continued to slake thirsts in Germany,
