German Hefeweizen

ABV 4.3-5.6% · IBU 8-15 · SRM 2-6 · Serve 45-50F · Glass Weizen 0.5L · Drink by under 6 months

Identify

Pale straw to deep gold, and cloudy enough that you cannot read print through the glass. A very thick white head that stands above the rim and holds its shape. Put the glass down, come back five minutes later, and the head has barely moved. You can smell banana and cloves before you pick it up. Soft and fluffy at the front, close to creamy. Then the bubbles arrive and scrub it off your tongue. The finish is dry and light with almost no bitterness. Banana leads in the smell, cloves turn up in the swallow.

Place

Bavaria, in southern Germany. Wheat brewing there goes back past 1500, though for centuries only royalty was allowed to do it. The pale version people drink today took over from the 1960s onward.

Cause

Banana and clove are not flavourings. They are two compounds the yeast makes while the beer ferments. The banana one is called isoamyl acetate. The clove one is called 4-vinyl guaiacol, usually shortened to 4VG. A brewer sets how much of each you get with four choices.

Confused with

Belgian Witbier, where the citrus and spice were added to the kettle rather than made by the yeast. American Wheat Beer, which uses a clean yeast and so has no banana at all. Dunkles Weissbier, the same beer with darker malt. Kristallweizen, the same beer filtered clear.

Numbers

A Hefeweizen is a wheat beer that tastes of banana and cloves, and neither of those things is in it. Both flavours are made by the yeast while the beer ferments. Nothing is added to the kettle. That single fact explains most of the style. The name is plain German. Hefe means yeast. Weizen means wheat.

Will you like it and Try

Banana bread, or a properly ripe banana. The smell in the glass is the same compound that makes a banana smell like a banana. Cloves, gingerbread, chai, mulled wine, or the spice mix in a Christmas biscuit. That is the clove side of the beer. Bubblegum.

Order and Pair

Ask for a half litre if the bar offers it. That is the standard German pour, roughly 17 ounces, and it is what the glass is built for. Ask for the tall weizen glass. It is narrow at the base, wide at the top, and the shape exists to hold a head this size without it spilling. Say no to the lemon when you order, not when it arrives.

Judge, Myth and Remember

Both flavours are present. You should be able to find banana and clove separately, even if one leads. The head is thick, white, and still there when you put the glass down and come back. The finish is dry and clean. Low bitterness is not the same as sweet, and a good example does not leave sugar behind. It tastes fresh.