Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Alkoholfrei

Brewed by Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan
Style: Low Alcohol
Freising, Oberbayern, Germany

Bottle, into a Weihenstephaner Weissbier glass, to enjoy with my lunch of all things. Typically attractive ’Weihenstephaner’ on show as it settles into the glass. Head rose a good inch from the brim and held there, a dense, rocky cloud of white. The body a tawny shade of gold, hazy, and amassing a mad flurry of fine carbonation. Subtle grain, a little over-ripe, browning banana and a whack of burnt sugar on the nose. Quite sweet. Thin and little fizzy for first impressions. Heavy clove and cracked pepper notes define it. Layers of grainy, wholemeal flavours begin to show in the aftertaste and gradually blend in on the palate. Carbonation softens and the beer thickens in body, becoming doughy as it goes. There is a tangy, sour wheat-malt edge in back. Nice quenching finish. Quite pleasant overall. I generally see NA beers as a waste, but this makes for decent drinking and for that I give it credit. One of the best NA beers I’ve had. (50cL, 08/03/07, Int’l Beer Shop, W. Leederville)

Bottle. Creamy white excellent mostly læasting head. Yellow collour. Slighly yeasty aroma, almost no other detected. Week to no flavor. Very short finish. Watery palate.

Bottle. Nice, spicy wheat beer aroma. Quite cloudy golden colour. Big, stable white head. Mouthfeel is quite nice, like most wheat beers. The flavour has some wheat and spices, but not as much as I would have liked.

Bottled (BB 09/2006)
Hazy orange color, big off-white head. Malty, rubbery aroma. Metallic, bready low alcohol flavor. Lacks banana esters of "the real one". Very crisp and carbonated. Not totally hopeless, but lacks everything (except appearance) what I like in hefeweizens.

Bottle. Damned drink driving laws in Australia (limit is 0.05%) :-(. Was forced to have one of these at a German restaurant after downing its big brother first. I should have done it in the reverse order. Appearance is what what you would expect of a hefe, hazy luminous straw yellow with a nice fluffy white head. Smell was very much attenuated in comparison to real beer, although the bread, banana, clove combination was in evidence. Same goes for the taste, but slight latex and metalic notes where evident. Palate was a little watery and heavily carbonated. Damned good attempt at a LA beer, but beer without alcohol is just not beer.

Bottled. Very hazy yellow/orange, huge longlasting white bubbly head. Wheat and sweet malt in aroma, along with some fruitish hints. Very pleasant flavour once it gets warmer (= do not drink it fridgecold). Wheat, fruit and yeast in flavour. Thin palate, otherwise nice NA beer.

Sweetish, worty, banana, carrot, marzipan. Fairly thin and watery. The beers looks OK and is drinkable.

I don’t know how many times he thought has been expresed that ABV is an intangible ingredient in a beer. A great Thai curry has this realy smelly shrimp paste in it that cannot be detected if used correctly, but if you had a curry without it you would know straight away. A good rich soup has onions in it but you can never detect thm either. Ditto here. I agree that taste does not need alcohol but body does. From a perspective of aroma and appearance the usual marks should apply as with a good full strength beer. But the flavour is weak and watery, and as with a lot of low ABV beers this has a high effervescence factor.