Weihenstephaner: Hefe weissbier (Germany: German Hefeweizen: 5.4% ABV)
Visual: Hazy lemon. Many small bubbles froth up. Massive slightly yellow white bubbled head that comes up into creamy froth.
Nose: Orange peel. Cloves. Coriander. Dry wheat. Lemon.
Body: Honey. Lemon sherbet. Light wheat and bitterness. Nutmeg. Lemon curd more than sherbet as the beer warms. Banana and cloves. Vanilla.
Finish: Honey and cream. Slightly oily sheen. Nutmeg again. Light ground peanuts. Bitterness and banana slices.
Conclusion: Frankly, for me, this is weissbier. I’ve had many of the style over the years but none have ever toppled this old favourite.
Despite the very obvious bubbles in the main body and obvious wheat influence of the style it feels smooth in texture. There’s also enough thickness to carry the fresh banana influenced flavour and matching honey sweetness .There’s a lightly spice aroma and body and the spice mid body keeps it refreshing rather than sickly sweet. It’s that balance that makes it easy to drink and delicious.
It’s a beer that catches you from the first glance. Like all the best weissbiers it looks great, especially in a weiss glass. The play of light through the hazy liquid at different thickness’ is always appreciated.
The beer keeps an understated hop bitterness that plays nice with the wheat, setting off the sweet flavours. Thankfully the beer also avoids the flaw of a lot of similar beers in the style that make the carbonate too heavily and roughly. An element that makes them hard to taste over the texture. This looks bubbly as hell but feels smooth and lets the flavour flow.
I must admit this may seem less like a review and more like a joyous return to an old friend, but I would be lying if I claimed it was anything other than one of my favourite beers and easily best in the style for me.
As a summer refresher its great and very citrus styled. As a beer in itself it’s wonderful and flavoursome. The fact it is so easy to pick up these days is a thing of joy.
Background: Hefe weissbier pretty much was the style that got me interested in beers. I was in my late teens and I’d heard a reference to this strange cloudy German beer and one day I saw it in a pub. So I ordered a glass. Most of the rest of the nights drinking was based around questions from mates on this strange beer in an equally strange glass. That started an interest in German beers that later branched into Belgium beers which branched into craft beers, which branched into the beer nut I am today. So you may say I have a fondness for the style. Weihenstephaner is one I have tried many a time and never tasting noted, possibly because it is quite easy to get, so I always think I’ll review it the next time. I finally got off my arse after seeing a review of the dunkel over at “It’s just the booze dancing” which reminded me how much I love this beer, and that I really should share the joy.
Nice review. Having had the Dunkel and reading your praise, I think I will definitely have to try the Hefe weissbier.
Hope you like it, I prefer it over the Dunkel myself but I think that’s more a style affinity as both are great.
Good review – I love weissbier as well but haven’t had a glass for ages. Where did you find this bottle?
This one was just from a local Sainsburys – I was quite surprised first time I saw it there.
Great review! As always, detail rich and entertaining to read. Regarding the beer that sparked my interest in, well, beer… I too had an eye opening moment thanks to a Hefeweizen. For me it was a Paulaner Hefeweizen that I had at a now defunct German restaurant in Philly called Ludwig’s. They had a fabulous selection of German beers on draught, and the food was pretty good too, particularly the wursts and pulled pork sandwich. And let’s not forget the Dirndls! But I digress…
That Paulaner was my first exposure to the possibilities of beer beyond the usual lager and ale, which at that point, was pretty much all that was available at most bars (i.e. the ones with decent scenery in my single days). That first sip was a revelation! The citrus, banana, clove and other spices woke up my taste buds and paired beautifully with the hearty German food. Sadly, there are few great American wheat beers (too subtle and bland for my taste), but as you said, thankfully, the spectacular German varieties are readily available. All I can say is…
I’ve never tried that many American takes on the hefe weizen so I couldn’t comment on that but aye, the Germans have it spot on. I love the weizenbocks as well, especially Aventinus which is such a great beer – though they have got rid of the great purple label and replaced it with a pretty bland one these days which makes me sad.
Strange, the label on the bottle is different, even the colors are different. Is it a bottle for collection?
It’s pretty much the standard bottle over here. Up to a few years a go it had white label with blue text but that got switched out for this more garish thing – I guess to stand out from the other German beers. Much as I love German beers their labels can tend towards the utilitarian.