Beer Revisited: Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
This weekend I am turning back the clock and revisiting a beer I tried during the first year of BotW: Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, brewed by Brauerei Weihenstephan of Freising, Germany.
Fittingly, I poured the beer into my Weihenstephaner weizen glass. The color is cloudy gold. Two fingers of dense, white, bubble-spotted head settle slowly. For the hell of it, I placed the cap on top of the foam to see if it was meringue-like and thick enough to hold it. It was not and I needed to fish the cap out before it sank to the bottom of the glass. The aroma is inviting and complex. There are scents of yeast, clove, apple juice, light lemon citrus, and banana. It also has a chewy, unflavored bubble gum character, too. Wooo—it is much more aromatic than anything I have had in a while! The clove spice dominates the first sip. The mouthfeel is full but light. Flavors of yeast, apple, and banana are also prominent but not as potent as they are in the aroma. The spice paired with the apple makes me think of apple pie, though cinnamon is missing from the flavor profile. Overall, it is bready and the flavor is not as intense or complex as the aroma, unfortunately.
Comparison to 2008 tasting: I mentioned barnyard and hay as aroma characters in my pervious review. I did not get those at all this time. For the flavor, I mention strawberries, which I also did not get this time. Sadly, that previous review is rather thin; it is BotW #22 so it was very early on and I was still refining my tasting and smelling skills. (I still am. It is an ongoing project, I assume. The big difference is that I am much more experienced now.) I also mentioned wheat in that past review. I suppose it’s just a given that there is wheat in wheat beer.
I gave the beer a B+ back in ’08. Based on this last tasting, I think I have to drop it down a peg or two. Since the flavor profile is lacking, I give it a B- or B.
Fittingly, I poured the beer into my Weihenstephaner weizen glass. The color is cloudy gold. Two fingers of dense, white, bubble-spotted head settle slowly. For the hell of it, I placed the cap on top of the foam to see if it was meringue-like and thick enough to hold it. It was not and I needed to fish the cap out before it sank to the bottom of the glass. The aroma is inviting and complex. There are scents of yeast, clove, apple juice, light lemon citrus, and banana. It also has a chewy, unflavored bubble gum character, too. Wooo—it is much more aromatic than anything I have had in a while! The clove spice dominates the first sip. The mouthfeel is full but light. Flavors of yeast, apple, and banana are also prominent but not as potent as they are in the aroma. The spice paired with the apple makes me think of apple pie, though cinnamon is missing from the flavor profile. Overall, it is bready and the flavor is not as intense or complex as the aroma, unfortunately.
Comparison to 2008 tasting: I mentioned barnyard and hay as aroma characters in my pervious review. I did not get those at all this time. For the flavor, I mention strawberries, which I also did not get this time. Sadly, that previous review is rather thin; it is BotW #22 so it was very early on and I was still refining my tasting and smelling skills. (I still am. It is an ongoing project, I assume. The big difference is that I am much more experienced now.) I also mentioned wheat in that past review. I suppose it’s just a given that there is wheat in wheat beer.
I gave the beer a B+ back in ’08. Based on this last tasting, I think I have to drop it down a peg or two. Since the flavor profile is lacking, I give it a B- or B.
