Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Dunkel

Brewed by Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu (InBev)
Style: Dunkelweizen
Munich, Germany

This poured a dark brown color and was cloudy, but retained a nice white head. The taste was spritzy, yet subdued compared to other dark wheat beers that I have tried. Still a very good beer.

Cloudy, almost muddy brown color. Decent head but with no lacing. Flat but slightly thick on the palate. Weak wheaty malt flavor mirrored in the aroma. However, yeast is the most predominant aspect of this beer. Short finish with a minimal amount of hops.

large bottle. Pours a pale grayish brown, but settles in glass as a murky light brown apricot. Rocky cream head. Smells of chocolate malt, fruit, and yeast. Upon sipping, the heavy carbonation initially veils the flavors, but as this subsides grassy notes come forth along with caramel malt. Given the intensity of flavor present in Franziskaner’s Weisse beer, I was surprised at how weak this beer was by comparison. It just seemed like the wonderful aromas that I noted came up quite empty in the body. Still, certainly quite drinkable. 8 3 6 3 15 3.2

Pours a hazy brown with a small beige head. Aroma is banana, yeasts, fruits, wheat, roast. Flavor is banana, wheat, dark malts, bread. Fairly dry but it works well here.

0.5 L brown bottle, with gold foil over the top of it. About the same beer as the Hefe-Weisse, but not quite the same. It is darker, but it still had the whipped, white meringue head on it. Aromas are slightly different, with a more pronounced roasted character to it. Tasted more lactic to me the the light version, still no hop aroma or flavors to it. It's an ok wheat beer, but not one I would seek out again.

Very enjoyable. Yeasty aroma. Very thick head on a murky orange-brown beer. Refreshing high carbonation spritzer-like taste. Spicy palate, cloves and nutmeg.

Overall Impression: This is a really tasty Dunkelweizen, for a really solid German brewery.

Standard issue to look at – light chocolate brown with no head to speak of. Sweet wheat beer notes on the nose, quite attractive. Thins out a touch in the palate as some drying characters take hold. Very similar to the Schnieder in this respect but the beer remains very drinkable.