Beer of the Weekend #88: Schneider Weisse Hefe-Weizen
The beer this weekend is Schneider Weisse Hefe-Weizen brewed by the Private Weissbier Brauerei Georg Schneider & Sohn of Kelheim, Germany.
Summer is officially over on Tuesday (the equinox), so, as I said last week, I’m commemorating the end of proper wheat beer season with one hell of a hefeweizen. Fittingly, it’s going to be warm this weekend.
I have yet to try it, but for some reason I have always considered Schneider Weisse the crème-de-la-crème of hefes. Maybe it’s the name or maybe it’s the price (see below; though, there are pricer hefes). Whatever it is, I’ve fondly admired the bottles of Schneider Weisse whenever I visited the German shelf at BevMo!; some sixth sense told me the sweet nectar inside was a little taste of heaven. I knew some special day I would try it. Today is that special day.
Beers of the World is stimulating my curiosity, and confirming my assumption, by saying “Schneider Weisse is widely regarded as the definitive example of the Hefe-Weizen style…” Oh, baby!
Serving type: Six 16.9-ounce (half liter) bottles.
Appearance: Poured a cloudy deep amber/caramel into a half liter weizen glass. It looks more like a dunkelweizen, but that’s excusable. Two fingers of head rose and dissipated to a thick lacing.
Smell: The very definition of hefeweizen. It smells of ripe banana, apple, and cloves. The yeast is prominent and tinged with a slight hint of pepper spice. There’s also a nuttiness, which others have labeled as nutmeg. I’ll go with it.
Taste: No wonder they call it “The Original.” It follows the smell, though it’s not as potent. Maybe I let it warm too much. The bananas taste a few days old and the apple sweetness is much weaker. It’s still tasty though. The yeast and wheat dominate.
Drinkability: True to style, it’s just a little taste of heaven. It’s clean and smooth and very flavorful. Who knew the 1870s tasted so delicious?
Fun facts about SWW:
-Price $3.99/bottle.
-Serving temperature: 48-54°F.
-Alcohol content: 5.4 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Beers of the World recommends “grilled chicken.” Have fun with that.
-Gravity: 12.8 percent.
-The SW brewery is, according to MJ’s Great Beer Guide, believed to be the oldest to specialize in wheat beer. It apparently started brewing liquid bread in 1607, though the Schneider’s have only been brewing it since 1872 (or 1855, depending on the source you use). They offer five styles: Kristall, Alkoholfrei (non-alcoholic), Aventius Weizenstarkbier (a 8.2 percent ABV wheat doppelbock), Original (tonight’s brew), and Leicht (light, unfortunately).
-Originally located in Munich, SW has been brewed in Kelheim, a city on the Danube, since the original brewery was destroyed in World War II. The brewery still operates a restaurant and bräuhaus, though, on Tal Street in Munich where the old brewery was.
-SW (or Schneider Weisse Original, as the brewery website refers to it) is “[b]rewed according to the recipe of Georg I. Schneider from 1872.”
-Here’s a little interesting backstory about ol’ Georg from Beers of the World:
That’s peachy-keen and all, but the missing information is how brewing beer for the king revived the style. Did the king make it fashionable?
-All the brewmasters at SW have been named Georg except one. Maria Schneider took charge of the brewery when her husband, Georg III, died at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The Quiet Man’s grade: A-.
Summer is officially over on Tuesday (the equinox), so, as I said last week, I’m commemorating the end of proper wheat beer season with one hell of a hefeweizen. Fittingly, it’s going to be warm this weekend.
I have yet to try it, but for some reason I have always considered Schneider Weisse the crème-de-la-crème of hefes. Maybe it’s the name or maybe it’s the price (see below; though, there are pricer hefes). Whatever it is, I’ve fondly admired the bottles of Schneider Weisse whenever I visited the German shelf at BevMo!; some sixth sense told me the sweet nectar inside was a little taste of heaven. I knew some special day I would try it. Today is that special day.
Beers of the World is stimulating my curiosity, and confirming my assumption, by saying “Schneider Weisse is widely regarded as the definitive example of the Hefe-Weizen style…” Oh, baby!
Serving type: Six 16.9-ounce (half liter) bottles.
Appearance: Poured a cloudy deep amber/caramel into a half liter weizen glass. It looks more like a dunkelweizen, but that’s excusable. Two fingers of head rose and dissipated to a thick lacing.
Smell: The very definition of hefeweizen. It smells of ripe banana, apple, and cloves. The yeast is prominent and tinged with a slight hint of pepper spice. There’s also a nuttiness, which others have labeled as nutmeg. I’ll go with it.
Taste: No wonder they call it “The Original.” It follows the smell, though it’s not as potent. Maybe I let it warm too much. The bananas taste a few days old and the apple sweetness is much weaker. It’s still tasty though. The yeast and wheat dominate.
Drinkability: True to style, it’s just a little taste of heaven. It’s clean and smooth and very flavorful. Who knew the 1870s tasted so delicious?
Fun facts about SWW:
-Price $3.99/bottle.
-Serving temperature: 48-54°F.
-Alcohol content: 5.4 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Beers of the World recommends “grilled chicken.” Have fun with that.
-Gravity: 12.8 percent.
-The SW brewery is, according to MJ’s Great Beer Guide, believed to be the oldest to specialize in wheat beer. It apparently started brewing liquid bread in 1607, though the Schneider’s have only been brewing it since 1872 (or 1855, depending on the source you use). They offer five styles: Kristall, Alkoholfrei (non-alcoholic), Aventius Weizenstarkbier (a 8.2 percent ABV wheat doppelbock), Original (tonight’s brew), and Leicht (light, unfortunately).
-Originally located in Munich, SW has been brewed in Kelheim, a city on the Danube, since the original brewery was destroyed in World War II. The brewery still operates a restaurant and bräuhaus, though, on Tal Street in Munich where the old brewery was.
-SW (or Schneider Weisse Original, as the brewery website refers to it) is “[b]rewed according to the recipe of Georg I. Schneider from 1872.”
-Here’s a little interesting backstory about ol’ Georg from Beers of the World:
To a large extent, the history of the Schneider brewery is the history of wheat beer in Germany. When Georg Schneider took over the Weisse Hofbräuhus in Munich in 1855 and started brewing wheat beer, this style of beer was going out of fashion and was seriously in decline by the late nineteenth century.
Then in 1872, Georg acquired the license to brew wheat beer for King Ludwig II and thus saved wheat beer from extinction. The company rapidly expanded, acquiring the wheat beer brewhouses in Straubing and Kelheim in 1927.
That’s peachy-keen and all, but the missing information is how brewing beer for the king revived the style. Did the king make it fashionable?
-All the brewmasters at SW have been named Georg except one. Maria Schneider took charge of the brewery when her husband, Georg III, died at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The Quiet Man’s grade: A-.
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