Unertl Weißbier

Brewed by Unertl Weissbier
Style: German Hefeweizen
Haag, Germany

Clear brown pour with a big white head. Aroma is loaded with bananas, cloves, honey wheat crackers and some syrupy notes. Flavor has overripe bananas and that is enough to turn me off to the rest of the beer.

Bottle. Sweet banana, orange, clove, and wheat malt aroma - very nice. Cloudy medium brown-yellow color with giant, long lasting tan head. Strong clove flavor dominates but banana/orange and wheat malt flavors still quite apparent. Finishes a bit light. A solid Hefe.

This was a decent hefeweizen Ihad at the Porterhouse in Dublin a couple of months ago. If only I could remember it better!

50cl bottle, as shown. Bottle-conditioned. Pours a cloudy dark, almost muddy amber with an initially huge, frothy off-white head. Retention is very limited, no lacing. Intense, even aggressive aroma of yeast, at this level quite uncommon in a hefe. Of course, there’s also the customary banana on the nose. Active carbonation, rather thick, but earthy mouth feel. Medium- to heavy-bodied for a weizen. Taste is very fruity - of grapefruit - and rather sweet at first - very typical of the Bavarian weizen style. Turns progressively sour in the finish and after taste. Lingering alcoholic, and mildly metallic, notes in the after taste, too. A characteristic Bavarian hefe, at opposite ends - within the same style - from Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen or Sierra Nevada Kellerweis(s). If you like the leaner, less fruity style, go for those two - otherwise this one is a very fine, very typical specimen.

30.10.2009,0,5l Bottle from beerangel.de. First impression is a rather strong smell of yeast from the glass. Colour is dark golden with off-white head. Its also quite clear. Aroma is smoothe, sweet and wheatmalt. There is also some banana flavours. Its very dark in colour! Nice smooth sweet aftertaste.

Body was suprising for a Hefeweizen since it was a cloudy amber color instead of the cloudy gold you normally get. Thick creamy offwhite head with some lacing. Smell is of wheat, banana, and clove. This beer is huge on yeast in the taste along with the banana, bread, and some brown sugar. The mouthfeel is creamy with a ton of carbonation. This is kind of offputting to me but still an enjoyable beer.

Bottle 50cl. @ home.
Cloudy hazy sparkling medium grey amber color with a large, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, off-white head. Aroma is light to moderate malty, caramel, light to moderate hoppy, grass, moderate yeasty, fruity, banana. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and light to moderate bitter with a average to long duration. Fresh and hoppy ;O) Body is medium, texture is creamy, carbonation is soft - lively. [20090823]

November 2009 best by date; Sampled August 2009,br> This has a aggressive carbonation (quite within style guidelines) as a soft pour still provides me with four-fingers of head in my 25cl tulip glass. The head is a bit darker than one would expect from a typical Hefewiezen as there is a bit of amber to it, and it is a full tan color. The beer too is quite a bit darker than one would expect, in fact it is well within the Dunkelweizen color band; the beer is a dark plum color that shows a nicely hazed, cranberry / gold color when held up to the light. Ah, the aroma is pure Hefeweizen; aromas of rich clove, a touch of tart wheat character, caramelized banana, some sweet malt & grain notes towards the finish and maybe a hint of grassy and toasty grain in the finish if you really dig for it. Ah, this has quite the aroma, especially if you dig a proper Hefewiezen.

Fizzy carbonation competes with a light, but textured viscous malt body; overall this beer is light feeling though and easily quaffable. The clove aromatics in the nose suggest a sweetness that is not found in the beer, at least there is only a light malt sweetness here. The beer finishes dry with a touch of hop bitterness and a spicy phenolic note from the clove. The clove flavor also adds a touch of perceived sweetness to the flavor of this beer. A touch of banana mixes with a touch of caramelized grain and the sweet clove. Even a touch of bubblegum character comes out towards the finish. The finish has a light tartness to it that I like to find in my Weissbiers and there is also a nice spiciness to the finish that is light but noticeable in its hoppiness.

With its dark color (surely they do a decoction mash, if not even direct fire there kettles) I was expecting a touch more heft to this beer; a bit more body would not have kept this from being quaffable and would have boosted the malt (both wheat and barley) presence a bit. Having said that, this beer, despite its dark color, is clearly a Hefewiezen and not a Dunkelweizen; it really doesn’t have much in the way of toasted or overly caramelized notes. This is darker than the Schneider Weiss Original though. This is nice and definitely enjoyable if you like Hefeweizen, but I wouldn’t say that it was a stand out example of the style.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ