Paulaner Hefeweissbier

Brewed by Paulaner Brauerei (Schörghuber)
Style: German Hefeweizen
Munich, Germany

Pours dark gold and hazy. The ample, excited head left me little lacing. Smell is predominantly rotten apple and yeast. Taste includes orange cream, overripe banana, and anise at the end, but remains relatively dry in spite of it all. Airy mouthfeel as if the beer evaporates on the tongue. Low amount of stickiness, which can be a problem in weissbier. It is a solid one but from the bottle lacks the depth of character it might have in Munchen.

50 cl. Bottle. Yeast in bottom. Very cloudy yellow coloured wiessbier, with a rich creamy head. A lot of aroma of wheat and yeast and some citrus. Good comlex taste for a wiessbier, fruity of banana and hints of wheat. A really good refreshing beer.

(500 ml bottle: $1.99 at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) So, perhaps the defacto standard for German Hefeweizens. It pours with a big, tall, bubbly head, just slightly off-white in color, and it sure is taking its sweet time dropping down to a size where I can actually take a sip of beer. So while I’m waiting for that, the color is a beautiful bright orange-golden, and of course is fully cloudy, and that’s without disturbing any of the abundant sediment on the bottom of the bottle. I’ll attempt to disturb that in subsequent pours, however. The nose is packed with fairly strong banana-like esters and a moderate phenolic aroma. Not getting too much of the typical clove smell, and the wheat aroma seems to be overrun by the banana, but the nose is still very inviting. Well, what do you know, the head has finally died down a bit. With as much banana as there is in the nose, I expected the flavor would share the same characteristic, but the banana is more restrained here. I also expected it to taste sweeter, but the sweetness is pretty mild as well. This balance allows the wheat flavor to really stand out more than in most Hefeweizens. Bitterness is very mild. And finally, there’s a touch of clove in the finish, putting a nice cap on this baby. Body is medium, with gentle carbonation for a smooth mouthfeel. I think I can see why this is often considered the standard for the style. Well-balanced, well-crafted and thoroughly enjoyable. But I never could break up that yeast pack lining the bottom of the bottle.

12oz. Bottle: Aroma of yeast and slight fruit. Poured dark yellow/flaxen in color with a small, rocky, fizzy head that disappeared. Cloudy. Very sparkling. Flavor is lightly sweet and lightly bitter. Tastes of yeast, wheat, slight citrus, light spices, and white pepper. Light to medium body. Thin, watery, chalky texture. Lively carbonation. Lightly bitter yeast finish is rather dry.

Seriously active cloudy orange beer, with a constantly growing head - crisp and lemony aroma, with a nice earthy, nutty wheat character, and a light acidity - a tiny bit of apple-ish sweetness up front, followed by light acidity and a touch of tartness - just a touch of banana and phenolic flavor - a lot of citrus arrives late, as the beer dries out and the wheat becomes apparent at last - not as good as weihenstephaner, but one of the better readily available german hefes, especially at 2 bucks a 50cl bottle.

This beer is near the top of my list of favorite Hefes. Its sweet and banana like with honey and cloves. It looks milky in the light and has the wonderful smell of fruit. The malt is perfect to me. Outstanding!

Re-Rate 01/18/02: While I no longer feel Paulaner is worth a ’Perfect 5’, I still rank it in the top 5 on my master list of Hefe’s. Pours a cloudy orange color, nice white head and generous lace. Nose is malt, wheat, citrus, clean and fresh. Front is malt sweet, the middle light, fresh, the finish dry, acidic, moderate carbonation and a bit dry with a nice hop presence to finish it off.

It’s got that bananayeast smell. Real good looking Weiss beer with nice label and tall head. It’s dryer and less tart than it smells. Pretty good mouth for wheat.