Schneider & Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse

Brewed by Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn
Style: Weizen Bock
Kelheim, Germany

500mL bottle -- Rozi’s Wine House, Lakewood, Ohio Frothy and foamy white head with hoppy nose. Medium apricot color with a nice hazy translucency. Hops are very present but not overpowering. Bitter spiciness is welcome and refreshing. A nice and unique beer.

Half-liter bottle adorned with lemon and electric blue label graphics. The foggy, strawberry blonde liquid rolls forth with a fanfare of billowing, airy fluff that boasts Herculean stamina. Fantastic fruity/spicy aromas leap from my glass- apricot, honey, raspberry syrup, tangelo, musk, currants, key lime, and lapsang souchoung. The round, malty flavor also features jammy fruit, spiced red grape jelly, cherry, and spruce. Bubblegum and five-spice enhances the warmly ethanolic finish. A refreshing, juicy mouthfeel is light and lively with carbonation, but not overcrisp. Heady afterflavors of expensive gin, incense, Hawaiian Punch, rosehips, and ruby grapefruit are hammered home by a retronasal clove/cinnamon karate kick. This beer resembles a liqueur cocktail, friendly yet complex and contemplative, and just screams for Pacific rim cuisine, crisp spring rolls with fiery chili sauce, Jamaican jerk barbecue, bacon-wrapped scallops, or simple grilled knockwurst with purple cabbage ’kraut.

Bottle, Very hop forward nose, pine and citrus are dominate. Palate is light like a more watery hefe, Hops dominate this brew quite a bit, and in my opinion a bit too much, as the hops override nearly everything. Many of the subtleties of the wheat are not perceptible. Not bad but a bit to hop dominate in my opinion. Thanks to MrRomero for this beer.

500ml bottle: poured a cloudy pineapple-ish brownish yellow with a large beige head. Aroma of citrusy/piney hops, not the standard banana notes from other weizens. Peppery pineapple flavor with some bitter hop presence. Mild sweet finish followed up by some big bitterness. Decent.

Bottle (thanks, Jonas!). Head is initially large, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is hazy light amber. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), moderately to heavily hoppy (resin, grapefruit, apricot), with a note of gum, hint of plastic. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation, lightly to moderately alcoholic. Not much better than the Brooklyn-brewed edition, maybe a little better balanced in the mouth but pretty much the same beer. These go beyond hop-accented to hop-dominated, and suffer greatly as a result.

Bottle. [thank you, sk8viking]
Poured in my Erdinger Weizen-glass. Poured with a big, beautiful slightly dirty white head - even poured ’correctly’. Very frothy, creamy at the centre and bubbly nearer the glass. The liquid in a deep, deep, golden copper with a slight haze to it, but otherwise clear. A stunning array of bubbles surges towards the head that have only lowered about 1cm while I’ve written all the above :o).

Aroma is quite ’deep’ with lots of wheat, ripe banana, apples, a touch of viniousness and a citric tartness as well. Very creamy mouthfeel, lots of small bubbles, but t still feels rather low in carbonation. But it sticks nicely to my teeth and the inside of my cheeks. Feels wonderful.

At first the taste underwhelms me, feels as if the aroma is better and more complex. It begins like a powerful regular hefe, where wheat, yeast and slight German hops appear. But as it warms up, and I balance it around in my mouth, lots of other things happen. The ripe fruit, sweet with banana at the forefront, are more pronounced. The hops are more apparent, flowery, peppery and rather bitter, actually. The fruit add a little tartness as well, slightly citric. And there are ginger, vanilla and pepper tones throughout. Wonderful balance, wonderful beer.

Pours a muddy orange colour. Sweet aroma with wheat, ripe bananas, yeast and a slight sourness. Good mouth feel. the flavour has some sweetness with a good fruitiness, wheat, banana, alcohol and a good bitterness. Wheaty fruity finish.

Fruit cocktail bouquet of banana, strawberry, pineapple, and apricot. There also seems to be a slight rubber smell to it as well. Dingy golden color with a huge, cream colored and textured head. The initial taste is toffee of good strength. It quickly transitions to one of bananas, apples, pears, and perhaps pineapple. The finishing hops taste of thistle and are perfectly well chosen for this unique beer. It seems to be better warm. I had heard and read about this beer all summer, but could not find it anywhere in my area. As luck would have it, I found a bottle in a shop near my parents’ house over the holiday, which is 300 miles from my home. It is more bitter than I expected, but has an enormous amount of potential.. The hefe-hop interplay is fabulous. With a tweak to either the recipe or process, this could be a perfect beer. Kudos on the collaboration and congratulations on a great first release. I’m dying to try the draft version.