Beer of the Weekend #278: Maisel’s Weisse Original

Not only was I a good boy tonight by writing through my novel troubles, I started a new journal for the first time since May 2010. It has been so long since I last started a fresh journal that Mead redesigned the cover for the classic, “salt and pepper” composition notebooks I use. So to commemorate the occasion and my effort tonight (two nights in a row!) I am sampling Maisel’s Weisse Original, brewed by Brauerei Gebrüder Maisel GmbH & Co. of Bayreuth, Germany.


This is another gem from the Binny’s in Willowbrook. Much like at the Binny’s in Skokie, the German selection was extensive. My mouth was watering, but I really wanted to start the trek back to IC (in the beastly Suburban) so I skimped on the German goodness. Fittingly for Chicagoland, there was also a lot of Polish (I think) and other Eastern European beers available.

Serving type: One 500 ml bottle. There is a batch code on the back label, but no freshness date.

Appearance: Poured into a half-liter weizen glass. I did an awful job on the pour, and it showed with a complete lack of head. A finger of light, white foam developed and dissipated quickly. The color, though, is pretty solid. (I could not mess that up.) It is cloudy gold/amber.

Smell: Exactly what I want from the style. The nose is hit by lots of fruit — apple, banana, and maybe strawberries — which are balanced with a perfect amount of bready yeast and clove and pepper spice. There is bubblegum in there, too.

Taste: The mouthfeel is light but also bready and quenching; it coats the mouth with a lot of sweetness. The flavor mostly mirror the smell: apple, banana, strawberry, yeast, clove, pepper, and bubblegum. The spices, though, are more prominent than the fruits, which I like.

Drinkability: This is a solid Bavarian hefe. Nothing spectacular or orgasmic, but it is very thirst quenching. I really wish I had poured it better.

Fun facts about MWO:

-Style: Hefeweizen.

-Price: $3.29/500 ml bottle at the Binny’s Beverage Depot on Illinois State Route 83 in Willowbrook, Illinois.

-Serving temperature: The front label says “STORE DARK AND COOL 46º-52ºF,” but it does not suggest a serving temperature.
Beers of the World (yes, a beer featured in one of my beer books; imagine that!) suggests 46-50ºF.

-Alcohol content: The brewery website (which is in German) pegs the ABV at 5.2 percent.

-Food pairings:
Beers of the World recommends “cold pork pie.” Yikes.

-According to
Beers of the World, Bayreuth is known among beer connoisseurs for its five breweries, but it is most famous for the annual Wagnerian opera festival. It is a rather dubious claim to fame now since Hitler was a huge fan of Wagner’s work — which he probably considered the epitome of German/Aryan art — and, if I remember right, always attended the festival.

The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.

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