Amber, dark, bock, and high-gravity variations are possibilities for the adventurous wheat beer brewer. Finishing hops may be absent, restrained, or fairly pronounced but are seldom used as lavishly as in West Coast pale ales. The one defining ingredient of wheat beers is wheat malt. Unmalted wheat is used in some Belgian styles and also as a conventional cereal adjunct in various parts of the world, but wheat beer requires wheat malt. The nature of wheat malt is central to the joys and perils of brewing wheat beer.
Wheat differs from barley in that it has no husk, which has several important consequences.
First, wheat is more difficult to malt than barley, because great care must be taken not to break the exposed acrospire during turning and kilning. Second, wheat malt has a higher potential extract than barley malt. Third, the lack of husks as a filtering material means that lautering tends to be tricky. Finally, relative to conventional all-barley mashes, there is less danger of picking up husk flavors with prolonged or excessive hot sparging. Most wheat malts are produced from relatively low-protein white spring wheats.