Plank Hefeweizen

Brewed by Brauerei Plank Laaber
Style: German Hefeweizen
Laaber, Oberpfalz/Bayern, Germany

Sampled form 16.9 oz brown bottle this beer poured a dark golden color with a huge yellow-white head. The aroma was sweet and yeasty with moderate notes of citrus and a hint of banana. The flavor was sweet, yeasty and a bit musty with noted of citrus, banana and bubblegum. The finish was long, sweet and yeasty. Excellent!

50 cl. bottle on 3/14/08. Massive white frothy head burst forth from a hazy gold pour, maintaining a notable presence for quite a while. Aroma is dominated by yeast, and the fruit esters are more subtle here than other more assertive examples. Spicy notes are quite subdued as well. Smooth, medium body and lively effervescence match up well to produce a satisfying, yet clean mouthfeel. Honey and light fruit flavors balance well with a very soft and gentle bitterness. An undercurrent of light sourness adds another dimension, and helps with a dry finish. A very well balanced and understated hefe, beautifully crafted.easily drinkable, and refreshing.

500ml bottle. Perfect hefeweizen appearance: hazy soft yellow body with a thick, strong and upright white head, looks like it could sit in the glass for hours and not deflate at all. Wonderfully vibrant nose of flower petals, spicy, peppery yeast and a soothing sweet lemon and wheat scent. Flavor is downright amazing: fresh, vibrant, prickly, semi-sweet before a little bit of sourness often found in Berliner weisse. Very smooth up front, more edgy across the middle, before finishing a bit sweeter than it started, with more of a lemon and candy sugar emphasis. Very, very good hefeweizen. I only wish it was 80 degrees outside rather than 30.

50cL bottle guzzled on 8/24/07. Pours a deep cloudy almost copper color with some of the sexiest head I’ve ever seen on a Hefe, quite a few chunks though. Nice and banana-y with noticeable bitterness in the finish. Damn refreshing for those 90F days with 85% humidity.

Looks good enough with a fluffy white head. Aroma is plenty banana. Creamy smooth palate with a nice touch of spicy hops. This shit is really good. I lie the fact that its not too sweet.

2007 (assumed) bottle from Downeast Beverages, drunk on 8/4/07
Big, creamy, white head is rocky and leaves moderate lacing. Pale golden color has hay and maize tints, with tiny bubbles and plentiful sediment on the bottom. Clarity is medium to medium-high (I dont mix the sediment in). Strong retention.
Lovely crisp, hoppy, light nose is full of vivacious herbs and spices, with strong wheat character and only minimal bubble gum. It seems like a light take on the style, but that’s fine and all the more enjoyable because the light aroma notes (soft spices/herbs, light esters and clean water) are all abundant. Very minimal vanilla, and mostly a light, somewhat grainy barley character to the base malts, with moderate sweetness. No alcohol or flaws.
Highly effervescent carbonation for the style, especially being that it’s bottled, though manageably tight, really helps sap the sweetness and highlights a flavorful mineral element to the beer, with succulent spices emanating from the hops (lemongrass, starfruit, wildflowers, lilacs) and a surprising lack of wheat blandness/chewiness/heaviness (whatever you want to call it). The malts are fresh and grainy, adding to the crisp, dry, drinkable nature of the beer. With warming, honey-cream sweetness emerges, in moderation, to give a bit more substance/body to the beer, as the carbonation simultaneously subsides. Clove and banana are present but modest. Terrific yeast! Much like Weihenstephaner’s. Can’t wait to try the others from Plank!

Bottle. Deep golden in color with a nice fluffy white head. Fruity banana clove bready aroma. Malty earthy caramel notes. Banana and spicy clove flavor. Medium bodied. Finish is spicy. Smooth tasting. Very drinkable.

20071022 1pt 9oz bottle. if Ringo was around, he’d dig this beer. most of what I hope for in a German hefeweizen is in this glass. Appearance, head, yadda, yadda - it looks like a hefe (should) look. Aroma is surprisingly pleasing with standard banana and clove spice, some presence of citrus, and more importantly, some very distinctive notes of leather, antique store, aging tapestry, and bold grass/straw. In fact, more than anything it reminds me of sweetgrass (or maybe Caribbean woven hats/bags). Also present on the nose are some melon rind hints and an unfortunate spritz of dms. Body is medium-light, beautifully spritzy, and a touch sticky. Flavor is less interesting than aroma but still quite nice with the standard hefe fare of banana, clove, and mild tartness, but that’s just the front of the sip. From middle to finish there is an assertive tartness that kicks in, medium leafy earthiness, and an spple skin astringency. The yeast is present throughout but never overdone in its sourness or fruit influence. The finish is dry, yeasty, and with some notes of black pepper. This stuff is excellent and almost all I hope for in a hefeweizen. Kudos to Plank for yet another outstanding example in their lineup.