Franziskaner Weissbier (Kristall Klar)

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

Nice golden color with a frothy head, good retention. Nose is spicy with clove, maltiness, maybe a hint of paprika or cinnamon. Good mouthfeel, malty character with a clean, dry finish. OK. I guess this isn't a bad stand in for my wife's favorite (the now defunct Spaten Club Weisse).

Much like the classic hefe, this starts with a snowfall white head, but it finishes more quickly and settles into a big white poofiness over crystal-clear yellowness. Subtle musty aroma. Smooth and malty with a VERY grainy taste.

This beer takes out the cloudy characteristic of the Franziskaner beer family. This beer looks like a normal beer. Same quality flavor as the rest of the Franziskaner beers.

Slightly hazy golden coloured body with a super dense white head and trillions of small bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. Really nice looking beer! Aroma of largely bananas, but showing cloves, coriander seed and bubble gum. Medium-bodied; Decently strong wheat flavour with yeast and coriander seed most prevalent. Some cloves and citrus are noticeable later on, but not at the extent of the first two. Aftertaste is fairly clean, no offensive qualities, just a subtle wheatie finish. Overall, a nice beer...basically spot-on for the style! I bought this 500 mL bottle at Beers of the World in Rochester, New York and sampled it on 10-December-2003.

The same as their Hefeweiss but filtered, of course. I've only had a couple of Kristallweizen so I don't have much to compare it to. Same flavors as the hefeweiss but a little more sweet and lacking some of the tartness. Basically if you want hefeweizen without the yeastiness or tartness, this is for you.

Very pale with a bubbly, tall, long-lasting head. Aroma is of clove and bubblegum, with a hint of vanilla. There is a slight touch of citrus in the otherwise smooth wheaty flavor. Aftertaste is of vanilla, honey and a dry hop bitterness. It comes across as slightly less smooth and drinkable to a regular Hefe, maybe because of overcarbonation. There also seems to be less complexity and a thinner flavor.

Very light golen color with a foamy head. Light wheat on the nose and palate. Not oustanding, but nice and crisp and refreshing.

Pretty plain yellow color--I've seen deeper color on American light beers--with a large, foaming head, dense, very white, and lasting for a very long time. Clove and ham aroma (I agree with this observation, credit to others for sensing it), with a vein of lemon especially in the early going. The flavor seems about 60-70% clove with a bit of pepper, banana, sourdough, and a touch of licorice. Plenty of carbonation in the glass, lovely streams, but the biggest thing about this beer is that it has a smoothness of palate that makes it seem lifeless at times. Even more oddly, the palate seems to improve much later (over the course of a half hour or more) with a slightly more carbonated mouthfeel helping to raise somewhat the standing of this one in my eyes.