By Stuart Whytcross

Hefeweizen would probably be one of my all time favourite beer styles, and on my last trip overseas, it was my goal to find the best one. This of course took me to Bavaria, which is the largest German state and is located in South-Eastern Germany. Although Munich and Bamberg are both in Bavaria, I decided to write two separate articles on these places, and include the rest of Bavaria and hefeweizens in this article.

It's no wonder Bavaria is noted for its exceptional quality wheat beers, after all they have spent the past 2800 years perfecting it! However, they weren’t the first, with evidence dating back to the Stone age (8 to 10 thousand years ago) of the Sumerians brewing with wheat along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in what is now Iraq.

Bavarians are known as some of the world's most beer-loving people, with an average annual consumption of 170 litres per person. Given beer is measured with the common Bavarian measure, a 'mass' (1 litre), it's really only one glass every second night! However, it’s not all beer in Bavaria. We can thank Bavarians for their non-vegetarian friendly specialties such as Weisswurst, Nürnberger Bratwurst, and Schweinshaxe. Bavaria is also home to the Franconia wine region, which is situated along the Main River in Franconia and has been producing wines for 1000 years.

 
 Not what I had expected but still impressed with the result after
asking for “zwei bratwurst” (2 Bratwursts) in Bamberg.
 

Reinheitsgebot

Bavarians are particularly proud of the traditional Reinheitsgebot, or purity law, pronounced "Rine-Hites-gaBoat", initially established by the Duke of Bavaria for the City of Munich on 23 April 1516.

According to this law, only three ingredients were allowed in beer: water, barley, and hops. Yeast was still a scientific mystery, with brewers utilising naturally occurring airborne yeast, and attributing fermentation to the powers of God. The penalty for making impure beer was also set in the Reinheitsgebot: a brewer using other ingredients for his beer could have questionable barrels confiscated with no compensation.

In 1906 the Reinheitsgebot made its way to all-German law, and along the way, yeast and the inclusion of other malts for top fermenting beers was also added. This law remained in Germany until May 1987, when the European Court of Justice ruled that the Reinheitsgebot was a restraint on trade. This has led to the Germans being able to import beers that do not conform to the Reinheitsgebot, and Germans being able to brew anything imaginable. However, most German brewers, and particularly the Bavarians, stick strictly to the original Reinheitsgebot Purity Law.

 
A few Paulaner hefeweizens with some friends Wurtzburg.
 

History

There is still talk today that wheat malt was purposely left off the Reinheitsgebot, due to the fear of using all the wheat supplies with nothing left over for bread. Given half a chance, I’m sure most Bavarians would rather go without bread than without wheat beer.

By the 16th century wheat beer was solidly established as a regional Bavarian specialty, due to the then ruler of Bavaria Duke Maximilian I, who made a law that only he would be allowed to brew and sell Weissbier. This monopoly on the weissbier industry accounted for one-third of the entire state revenues, which came in quite handy during the 30 years war (1618 – 1848).

By the late 1700’s Weissbier had fallen out of fashion, and in an attempt to save it, the law was lifted allowing anyone to brew Weissbier. Sadly this made no impact and by 1812, there were only 2 breweries brewing it.

The Weissbier revival started again during the late 1800’s when the Schneider family acquired the Weisses Bräuhau in Munich, which they still own and operate as a pub today, and started brewing Weissbier. However Weissbier never really flourished due to the lager revolution. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that, for some unknown reason, Weissbier, not only in Bavaria, but across the world, fell back into favor. Today it accounts for nearly 1/3 of all the beers sold in Bavaria, making it the most popular style of beer.

Today there are approximately 650 breweries in Bavaria alone, with the vast majority of them producing at least one wheat beer, and twenty of these breweries producing nothing else.

The beer

 
Krombacher Weizen
 

Hefeweizen is a kind of weissbier (white beer) that, unlike kristall weiss, is unfiltered. It remains cloudy due to wheat proteins and yeast in suspension. Hefe is the german world for yeast. It's a top fermented beer that uses select strains of ale yeast that produce 4-vinyl guaiacol. This gives the style its characteristic clove, banana and bubblegum esters. It's typically made with equal parts of wheat and barley malts, although it’s not uncommon to find wheat malt making up to 70% of the grist in some breweries.

Served in tall, flared glasses, the bottles of hefe are completely inverted and jammed into the glass, and slowly removed at the same pace as the glass is filled, ensuring the bier is cloudy with yeast. I’m guessing this is the reason why wheat bier is rarely served on tap throughout Bavaria.

I tasted plenty of hefeweizens here, with the majority of them being exceptional. The freshness of the beers I tasted in Bavaria are incomparable to imported hefeweizen I’ve tasted in Australia. For this article I am going to list the top seven Bavarian hefeweizen’s that I tasted while visiting Bavaria.

 
A selection of Weissbier from a small supermarket in Wurtzburg.
 

Julius Echter Hefe-Weissbier Hell
Pours a deep gold with an massive white, long lasting head. Aroma of bubblegum, banana and clove. Flavours of fresh bread, wheat, banana and lemon citrus. Crisp, tart and very refreshing with a medium body and lively carbonation.

Kloster Andechs Weissbier Hefetrüb
Pours a hazy golden straw with thick dense head with excellent retention and glass lacing. Subtle banana, wheat and clove, but very minimal. Slight citrus also evident. Nice refreshing flavour that reminds me of amarillo, apricot and peach? With again slight doses of banana, bread, and wheat. Medium body with medium carbonation. A very sessionable hefe, nowhere near as full on as other takes on style however a well balanced benchmark beer.

 
Kloster Andechs Weissbier
 

 
A selection of biers, mainly weizens that bought from a service station
in the south of Bavaria.
 

Gutmann Hefeweizen
Pours a typical weizen, hazy, gold and huge fluffy pearl white head. Aromas of sweet banana cake, apricot, wheat malt and light clove and slight vanilla. Cloudy yellow-amber with nice big fluffy off-white head. Sweet banana, clove, wheat, slight malt and fresh bread with a slight evident bitterness. Full to medium bodied with a tart finish. A great hefe.

Hofbrau Hefeweizen
Pours a cloudy, light orange/yellow with a dense frothy pearl white head. Aromas of fresh banana, subtle spice and lemon, with slight honey. Initial flavours of clove and sweet malt through to soft banana. Medium bodied with a nice crisp tart finish. Extremely fresh and slightly more tart than others.

 
Hofbrau Hefeweizen inside the Hofbrau Haus. Munich.
 

Lohrer Keiler Weissbier
Pours a cloudy, light orange/yellow with a dense frothy pearl white head. Aroma is quite phenolic and clovey with plenty of spice, ginger? nutmeg? Full on malt with slightly minty and herbaceous characteristics which finished quickly into a tart lemon finish. Medium to full bodied with very low carbonation.

Distelhäuser Hefe-Weizen
Pours hazy orange with massive white head and moderate lacing. Aroma is massive fresh banana….and more banana. Medium sweet malt, with slight saltiness. Velvet creamy texture into medium body and soft carbonation and acidic finish.

Schneider Hopfenweisse Tap 5
Pours a muddy riverwater with poor head retention. Aromas of citrus, jasmine, bread, apricot, honey and bees wax. Flavours of strong aniseed and citrus, white pepper, slight ginger, banana bread and cloves. Full bodied with strong bitterness and slightly less carbed than expecting. Not a traditional hefeweizen, but a great beer.

 
Schneider Hopfenweisse and Hefeweisse
inside the Weisses Bräuhau, Munich.
 

I got a good dose of hefeweizen in Germany. So much so, that my farts actually started to smell of banana and clove! As for my favourite, well although not true to style the Schneider Hopfenweisse was probably the pick, however with all the Weissbier I tasted, and even in my tasting notes, I seemed to be comparing everything back to Weihenstephan hefeweissbier, a great Weissbier that luckily, we are able to appreciate here in Australia.

If anyone is thinking about a trip to Bavaria, Germany or any other parts of Europe for beer-related travel, please feel free to contact me. I have loads of maps, brochures, books and info, and would love to share them with other members keen on visiting these places.

Next Month, Bamberg and Rauchbier.