Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier

Brewed by Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan
Style: German Kristallweizen
Freising, Oberbayern, Germany

500 ml bottle

I picked this up at a local store after finding it on the shelf following a recent expansion. Given the price ($2.79) I didn’t have too high of an expectation especially since it is a kristallweizen. Still you don’t get the chance to try these very often so when I ran across it I decided it was worth checking out.

Aroma / Appearance - A fast growing head surged to the top of my glass before slowly settling into a thin layer of white. Underneath was a transparent yellow body that look like most pale lagers. Tart lemon, wheat and a hint of sour drop candy combined to form an pleasing but basic bouquet.

Flavor / Palate - Citrus and freshly mowed grass merge then almost immediately disappear. The light aftertaste reminds me of the crumbs at the bottom of a bag of banana chips. It’s not bad though I’ll stick to hefeweizens to get my regular session fix.

The bottle looks old-styled, but good. The beer is very zippy and fruity, not too sweet. Really a good beer.

Pours a clear gold. Aroma is sour with slight citus. Taste is a lot different than the nose, wheaty and dry. Finish is crisp and dry.

pours a clear (duh?) pale gold with a soft fluffy off white head. it sticks around for quite a while...aromas of wheat, bananas and pale metallic malt. really refreshing flavor...wheat, lemon, yeasty spices and some grassiness. finishes spicy and dry with lingering yeast and banana. light to medium bodied with crisp carbonation. i’d really like to try this fresh on tap when it’s 110 outside.

This is a very nice, tasty, yet crisp, light, refreshing beer. It is gold with a huge, hard-to-control, dense white head that is thicki, long-lasting, only slowly diminishing to a permanent smaller head and it leaves nice lacing in even rings. The aroma is very aromatic but light in body, being light grain, pine, herbal, with a metallic hint. The taste is like the aroma, with definite, persistent, strong flavour, but light and crisp. There is a faint bubblegum element in the middle, before a crisp finish and a long, mellow grain aftertaste. It has light bitterness. In the end, a delicious, refreshing beer that is highly drinkable, light & crisp but very flavourful.

Typical banana, clove deal. A bit of peach as well. Sort of a candy sweetness that I didn’t expect. Thick perhaps even gummy mouthfeel. Light carboantion. Needs something to balance the sweet malt and slightly tart wheat. Hops? None apparent. Pretty OK, but nothing exciting. Other than appearance, this is no different from a hefeweizen as far as I can tell.

A clean light yellow pour. Aroma out weighs the look by a longshot. A much morer agressive flavor than the look would indicate. Palate you would swerar should be thin but is very solid. A surprising beer that had to have been filtered.

I wasn’t blown away by this Kristallweizen like I thought I would be. It was way over-carbonated for me, and the flavor was not anything memorable either. One thing that I can say though, this was a beautiful beer to look at while drinking it. 100% clear, with a nice white head.