Posts Tagged ‘Wheat Beer’

Oktoberfest: Erdinger

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Yet another greater Munich area brewery, Erdinger Weissbrau is in the hamlet Erding at the end of the S2 northeast of Munich. Their festbier is also made with wheat, producing an Oktoberfest Weizen.

2009-10-14-erdingerThis Weizen is a somewhat hazy copper color with a visibly active carbonation. Its big and creamy off white head lasts forever. The nose is delicate but complex. A light banana character greets first, with rich caramel malt notes quick on the heels. Slowly it opens up into a big malty aroma accentuated by phenols and alcohols: cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and a bit of a warming tingling.

A creamy but not overpowering body and clean mild flavor make this a very drinkable beer. Rich dry maltiness comes through as toast. Pepper and a bit of herbal hops accompany, and there is the slightest hop bitterness.

If the goal of a festbier is to be drinkable for ten hours a day, the Erdinger undoubtedly passes. If the goal is an interesting beer highlighting the best Bavarian grains and hops, Erdinger has produced a triumph.

++Erdinger Oktoberfest Weizen

4.3 (5-8-8-5-17)

The Session #32: Eastern Beers

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

session_logoThe Session is a beer-themed blog-off occurring the first Friday of every month, featuring articles on many different beer styles as well as numerous tangential topics. Look here for more history or information on participating. This month’s session, Eastern Beers, is being hosted over at Girl Likes Beer. The prompt is located here and the roundup is here. After pondering the western sources of many of the beers she has tried, Girl Likes Beer directs us to have a beer from a country EAST of our own. She asks simply, “why do you like this beer?”

I spent a while pondering what to drink. It seems the prompt would allow me to drink any European (or African or Asian…) beer, but in keeping with the spirit I’ll have Grieskirchner Weisse, an Austrian wheat beer from Brauerei Grieskirchen. At just over five percent alcohol this is pretty heavy for a weissbier. It is interesting to note that wheat malt is listed before barley malt in the ingredients, indicating to me that the grist is over 50% wheat, a ratio uncommon but not unheard of.

The Weisse pours a moderately hazy old gold. A bone white head is never particularly big but it does linger.2009-10-02grieskirchenweisse The mild nose is fruity – bananas mostly, some apples and lemon. There is just a bit of alcohol tingle.

The taste is mild as well, with biscuit flavors from the wheat malt and the same fruit as the nose. As it warms a flat metallic taste comes out. Quite sweet, but doesn’t leave too much of a mouth coating. The very low carbonation (for a weisse) probably makes this beer more nondescript than it could be.

Girl Likes Beer requested we include the flag of the country of origin of the beer we drink. Sorry, I don’t have an Austrian flag. She also asked that we share the “coolest stereotype associated with the country”… I guess maybe some people think they’re Australian?

+/-Grieskirchner Weisse

2.8 (3-6-5-3-11)

New Glarus Black Wheat

Monday, August 31st, 2009

From New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin, I have a bottle of Black Wheat. This weissbier is made with not only the traditional wheat and barley but also roasted malts, oats, and rye.2009-08-31-black-wheat The roasted malts make it dark, the oats make it chewy, and the rye makes it spicy.

Black Wheat is a deep dark chocolate color. The tan head is thick, creamy, and long-lasting. This wheat beer has a smooth malty nose with hints of complexity. Toast, wheat, roast, and chocolate malt aromas lead the way, with spices including cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and black pepper complimenting the grains. Just a hint of fruit, probably banana.

A creamy palate and rich and dry malt flavor greet the tip of your tongue. This beer is an ideal hybrid of English stout and German wheat: robust malt character with coffee and chocolate of a stout, rich wheat flavor and spiciness of a weizen. Toast and coffee with chicory balances the wheat and bread. Cloves, nutmeg, and rye add a new dimension. A slight banana flavor rounds out the taste. This beer is malty but also quite dry with a lively carbonation.

An interesting concept, well executed.

+New Glarus Black Wheat

3.9 (4-8-8-3-16)

Bell’s Oberon

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

OberonThe summer ale of Bell’s Brewery in Comstock, Michigan claims to have “the color and scent of a summer afternoon”. If any style can make a claim to this it would be an American wheat like Oberon.

Oberon is a golden poppy color with a generous haze. The head is bone white and creamy, leaves a great lacing, but falls a bit too quickly. The nose is delicate. All you get is hints of various aromas: hints of toast, hints of orange, hints of orange blossom. A gentle floral fruitiness.

The taste is somewhat more assertive, yet still mild. Great malt notes of toast and a bit of caramel. A perfectly balancing hop bitterness keeps this beer refreshing. The hops don’t stop there, though, contributing a spicy and fruity character that rounds out the flavor.

Light, balanced, refreshing, and flavorful. A great summer beer.

+Bell’s Oberon Ale

3.9 (4-7-8-5-15)

Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

This next beer is the result of a collaboration between Hans-Peter Drexler of Weissbierbrauerei Schneider and Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery. It comes in two forms, one brewed at each of the breweries, and the two have slightly different hopping regimes. Both are called Hopfen Weisse (“Hop Wheat Beer”); when made in Kelheim the full name is Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse.Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse This one is dry hopped with saphir (have I been in a rut recently?). In case you are curious, when made in Brooklyn it is called Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weisse and it’s dry hopped with amarillo and palisade.

The Hopfen Weisse is a very cloudy tangerine yellow. It has a bit of off-white head. The aroma is much like you would expect from a hefeweizen: strong clove and banana and some bready, wheaty, and toasty malt notes. In this one, however, there is a distinct citric hop aroma. The nose is delicate but remarkably complex. The already carefully balanced hefe character has found a hoppy companion.

The flavor delivers on what the nose promises. Likewise light and delicate, it is a dance of wheat breadiness, yeast clovitude, and hop citricity (that’s right). There is just a hint of alcohol warming, not enough to tell you that it’s over 8 percent by volume. A bit of sweetness keeps the alcohol at bay to let the cloves and exotic fruit flavors shine. That sweetness refrains from hanging around long enough to be cloying, maintaining the delicacy of this beer.

As my friend Jan says about this one, “Nom, nom, nom!”

++Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse

4.3 (3-8-9-5-18)

P.S. In case you were wondering, that is my saphir single hop homebrew in the backgroud waiting to get racked.

Session #28: Think/Drink Globally

Friday, June 5th, 2009

session_logoThe Session is a monthly beer blog carnival, that is, a beer-themed blog-off. This month is hosted by Brian of Red, White, and Brew. The prompt is located here and the roundup is here. He asks that everyone honor “Global Craft Beer Forever” and describe “the farthest brewery (including brewpubs) you have visited and specifically the best beer you had there” and then have that (or a similar one).

I believe that by great circle distance Munich is farthest. So Andechs monastery brewpub it is. This monastery not only makes some of the best beers in the Munich area, they also make amazing artisanal cheese. Taking the train from Munich, you walk through the quaint village of Herrsching and up a footpath through wonderful foliage. After a little while you come to the back wall of the monastery on top of the mountain.2009-06-05-church Continuing along the wall, eventually you make it to the original chapel and courtyard, complete with maypole. If you are able to hold your thirst, you’ll stop in and see how beautiful it is. If not, you’ll keep going to the beer garden that features a breathtaking view of the city 35 km (about 20 miles) away. Fortunately, there is a shuttle back to the train station because you’re going to need it after all the cheese and masses (that is, liters of beer).

My best story about Andechs is of my first visit. I had heard that it was at the end of the S5, but didn’t realize it was near Herrsching not Holzkirche. All I had heard was that there is a sign for the footpath right by the station. So my Aussie friend and I set out for a day trip.2009-06-05-us We rode all the way out to Holzkirche and walked around looking for any sign, finding none. So we inquired of the nice English-speaking clerk in the station cafĂ© where the brewery was. It was quite fortunate that she realized what we were talking about, and even more fortunate that my buddy wasn’t really angry at me. After walking around the village waiting for the next train, we rode for about an hour and a half back through downtown Munich and out the other side to Herrsching. But it was more than worth the wait. The footpath up Andechs mountain is remarkably pastoral and the beer and cheese and sauerkraut are unmatched.

2009-06-05-aventinusAndechs makes every standard Bavarian style and one interesting beer: a weiss with apples that you can only get there. Note that this is acceptable because the Reinheitsgebot (the German beer purity law) does not apply to wheat beer. But my favorite was their Dunkles Weissbier. As far as I am aware you can’t find it outside Germany, so I’ll have a bottle of another Munich dark wheat beer, the masterful Schneider Aventinus made by G. Schneider & Sohn. In 1907, disturbed by what she saw as a troublesome proliferation of light beers in Munich, Mathilde Schneider created the first strong wheat beer, the dark wheat-doppelbock Aventinus.

The Aventinus is a lightly hazy bronze-caramel color with a thick, honey-colored head. The aroma is big with bananas, strong malty caramel, and some toast.

The flavor is also strong with caramel and banana. It is somewhat sweet, but sufficiently carbonated so it is far from cloying. Light and playful, the Aventinus is somehow sessionable, even at 8.2% alcohol. This is what caused me plenty of trouble over in Munich.

+Schneider Aventinus

3.8 (4-7-7-5-15)

The photos at Andechs are courtesy of my beer school friend Matt. Thanks Matt!

Hacker-Pschorr Sternweisse

Friday, November 7th, 2008

The second oldest of Munich’s breweries, Hacker-Pschorr brews four wheat beers: a hefeweisse (wheat beer with yeast), a dunkle (dark wheat beer), a leichte (light wheat beer), and the Sternweisse, meaning “Wheat Star”. It is an unfiltered amber, brewed just a little stronger and drier than the other beers.

The star pours a cloudy sandy brown, with hints of russet. The head is just-off-white, creamy, and lasts. The nose is quite strong of fresh bananas, with notes of cloves and spices and a hint of caramel.

As the beer pours towards your tongue you feel a rush of banana and caramel, and when it hits are notes of biscuits and malt. There is a light sweetness, accented by the fact that this is not nearly as effervescent as most German hefeweisse beers. Playful, fruity, and quite drinkable. This would be a great summer beer. Too bad it’s cold and wet out now.

By the way, I love this label.

+Hacker-Pschorr Sternweisse

RateBeer: 3.6 (4-6-8-4-14)