Schwelmer Weizen (GER)

This is most likely my last hefeweizen for about eight months. The brewer says, in somewhat stilted English, "Schwelmer Hefe-Weizen features a fresh taste, for not only the hot days of the year." For me, however, there are plenty of other styles that take precedence as the weather cools.

I bought this because I've always liked Schwelmer's pilsner. The weizen looks like it should, with an extra craggy white head. It smells of banana bubblegum. Taste-wise, I'd like to think I could pick it out of a hefeweizen lineup. It pushes forth a prominent clovey spiciness and finishes on the dry side. There isn't much, if any, lemony citrus here. If you want to drink something you've never tasted before, don't order a hefe. Still, Schwelmer isn't just like all others. No guarantee you'll like it, but I did.

Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat/Tire Bite Golden Ale (COL)

Two beers from a Flying Dog 12-pack I bought for over $16. This is a six-by-two 12-pack, which is nice for tasting purposes. Old Scratch Amber Lager was the lone lager in the pack.

Flying Dog is known for label artwork produced by Ralph Steadman of Hunter S. Thompson book jacket fame. He also has done photography and DVD artwork for Withnail & I, and apparently has several wine books.

In-Heat Wheat: An unfiltered hefeweizen at 4.7%. A bit orange in color and in taste. Its citrus aspect are more smooth orange sweetness than lemon tartness. There also isn't much wheat twang (or whatever it's called). The last hefe I tried was highly tart, so this really works in the opposite direction. Much clove, but no banana. It's a bit thin but still tastes good. Not a textbook German, but better than most American wheats.

Tire Bite Golden Ale: This isn't the type of beer to impress many beer raters. Light color, 5% ABV, only 16 IBUs. It says "it goes down so easy" right on the label. It's light, mostly of grainy malts at first and some herbal hops at the end. Dry, but never bitter. Both ratebeer and Beer Advocate have this listed as a Kolsch, and in fact the brewery won a medal for it at GABF in that category. Whether it's authentic to the style, I don't know. It is moderately tasty and refreshing, at least when well chilled, but it's the sort of beer that should run $6 a sixer.

Miltenberger Helles Hefe Weizen (GER)

This is from Craft Brewers of Bavaria, the same group that brought over the tasty Zötler Dunkel. Again, it's under $7 for four 330 ml, and brags of the Cold Track system, to ensure freshness.

Miltenberger Hefe Weizen certainly looks great -- cloudy straw with a comfy head -- and smells properly of banana, spice and lemon. But the flavor is a bit of a let down for me in that it's overly tart. It's almost as though they decided to add the lemon wedge, leaving the drinker no choice. There's still some of the standard hefe flavors as well as a refreshing if somewhat light body. It really comes down to how much tartness you want. Drinking it colder (45 degrees?) or with the right food (something citrusy?) might mute the effect and make this better.

Not a bad hefeweizen, but I was rooting for this to be better. The only other beer I've seen from this group is Lammsbrau Light, which I have no interest in trying.

Saranac Hefeweizen (NY)

In the wake of the F.X. Matt brewery fire, I decided to pick up one of their seasonal offerings. I'm not going to pretend as though I love the Saranac line. They do some things well, some not so well. Hefeweizen is one I was not confident they'd do well; I don't think many US brewery's get it right. It turns out, this was better than I'd expected.

Off to a good start: Saranac Hefeweizen is unfiltered and has a proper banana aroma. The flavor brings a bit of spice (coriander, clove) and, near the end, a lemony tartness. The finish is a bit messier than I'd wish, with spice and tart and maybe some slightly off flavors. Still, the whole thing is pretty good. The body isn't too light and it has a nice active but not obtrusive carbonation (a lot of other Saranac's are over-fizzed, IMO).

I'd rank this above the American "classic" Widmer Hefeweizen, which I admit I don't much like. Saranac's attempt at the style isn't up to the standards of top German breweries, but you'll pay barely half as much for a bottle. It's sold as part of the brewery's summer 12-pack if you can't find it in singles or sixes.

Ayinger Brau-Weisee (GER)

Old Bavarian brewery, been around for centuries. Their hefeweizen pours a pale yellow, lacking the orange tinge of some others (my picture makes it seem darker than it is), but with an uber-fluffy white head. The aroma is of banana and lemon and the texture of champagne, with abundant tiny bubbles. I think if there's one thing to differentiate this from the pack, it's the relative dryness. There's a mild fruitiness and spiciness throughout, but overall, Brau-Weisse is dry and crisp.

To me, Ayinger is in the mix among the top German hefes, and has the advantage of availability. I found this in a Merchant du Vin display at my local supermarket.

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier/Dark (GER)

Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan is a state owned brewery. You just don't see that sort of thing in the US. Both of these wheat beers are just over 5% ABV and both are, of course, brewed in accordance with the German Purity Law, though the brewery predates the law by half a millennium.Hefe Weissbier: This strikes me as being on the wheatier end of the hefeweizen spectrum. Of course, that's the style, but it comes across as fairly earthy. There's the usual banana and cloves, but it is more spicy and less sweet than other hefes, without any of the lemony notes you sometimes get. The texture is great: creamy and only lightly carbonated. Still, for all the praise this receives, I don't think I like it as much as Paulaner's take on the style. However, I'm not trying them side-by-side, and it's not hot outside.

Hefeweissbier Dark: I got a big whiff of banana out of the glass here, more so than for any other wheat beer I tried. It pours a murky amber with a great mouse pillow head. The dunkel version is more malty and less noticeably yeasty and wheaty than the straight hefe. It's ever so slightly sour as well. In his Great Beer Guide, Michael Jackson says this beer is reminiscent of maple syrup and recommends serving with pancakes. I can see what he's getting at: there's a banana walnut waffle quality here. In the aftertaste, cocoa and roasted malts appear. In fact, the aftertaste of Weihenstephaner reminds me of the main flavor of Erdinger's darker take on the style (Erdinger being the stylistic outlier).

Two fine beers. I preferred the dunkel this weekend, but I suspect that may be due to the cool weather.

Erdinger Oktoberfest Weizen (GER)

I bought this expecting something similar to an oktoberfest lager. My mistake. This is an ale that is much closer to an ordinary hefeweizen than to a standard oktoberfest brew.

In many respects, this is a lot like Erdinger Hefe-Weizen: cloudy yellow, a bit orange-ish, nice white head, light-to-medium body with pop-rocks carbonation. It's refreshing. The taste is neither hefe banana nor festbier caramel (or maybe it has tiny amounts of both). Certainly, its much more sweet than bitter, although there are a few hops present, plus some toastiness.

It's an okay beer. I would have liked for it to drift further away from hefeweizen and a bit closer to an oktoberfest. 50/50 would suffice; this is more like 70/30.

Erdinger Hefe-Weizen (GER)

Not too many Summer Saturdays left, so I have to drink the hefeweizens while I can. I paid $2.85 for a half liter bottle of what I believe is Germany's top-selling hefe. But is it supposed to be like this?

It pours a nice yellow-orange color topped by thick white foam, but the head is gone before I can snap a picture of it. The aroma isn't strong; only slightly fruity and maybe spicy. What a dislike is the level of carbonation: way too high for a weissbier. It undercuts the creaminess of the texture (it is rightly medium-full). I don't get much citrus or banana either, and, of course, no hops. So what is this?

My first thought is a bad bottle. When I tried Paulaner Hefe earlier, I had to disregard the first bottle, which was bad in a similar way. A few differences here, though. First, it's a matter of degree. The Paulaner was more severely awful. Second, the Paulaner was a bit old, while the Erdinger is dated drink by January 2008. Third, reviews at Ratebeer and Beer Advocate suggest that the Erdinger really is supposed to have a lot of carbonation for its style. Some like it ("lively carbonation"), but a number of critics describe a beer very similar to what I tried. So maybe this is just a poor brew. I might buy another bottle and add an update.

Update: I did in fact try another bottle a couple of weeks later and it was much better. Still fizzier than I'd like, but much more flavorful than the previous bottle. I wouldn't rank it as high as the Paulaner, but it's still a good hefeweizen.

Paulaner Hefe-Weizen (Germany)

The link I have to About.com is for an article entitled Top 10 Top Ten Beers Every Beer Lover Should Know by Bryce Eddings. This is one of them. The list isn't supposed to be the 10 best beers ever, but is meant to show classic beers of various styles. I think few would argue against the inclusion of this Bavarian unfiltered wheat ale, and if you're just developing an interest in beer, you should try this.

This is a style I like (admittedly, a fair number doesn't seem to). I had tried the Paulaner earlier this summer but got a bad bottle: overly fizzed, no taste. Giving it another shot, I paid $2.50 for this 500 ml bottle dated 11/06. Not exactly new, but as best I can tell, there's nothing bottled in '07 available in the US.

Anyway, this is a great beer. Nearly opaque orange-yellow with a head your pet mouse could fall asleep on. The creamy body blows me away. The taste is fruity, but not too much so. Hefeweizens are described as good summer beers, but it would be wrong to consider this insubstantial. The combination of the rich body, slightly high alcohol (5.6%) and larger size would keep me from drinking too many of these in one sitting.

Note: this site has a nice tasting of several German hefes, but doesn't include the Paulaner. For the record, I didn't put a lemon slice in my beer, and I know that's not a proper hefeweizen glass.