#hefeweiss

1000 YEARS OF BREWING EXPERIENCE

Review: Weihenstephaner Dark Hefe-Weissbier (Bottle)

By Niko I (FF)

There is perhaps no current brewery with a more significant history than Weihenstephan, the oldest active brewery in the world. The beer was first brewed by the Benedictine monks at their monastery on top of Narhberg Hill in the year 725, in the Bavarian city of Freising. Now before I go further it should be pointed out that even though Weihenstephan is the oldest remaining brewery, they were certainly not the first beer brewers... not even close. Beer has been around for thousands of years, well before the Bavarians, Romans, Egyptians, etc walked the earth.

Though they had been brewing for hundreds of years already, Weihenstephaner officially obtained their brewing licence in 1040, the date you may have seen printed on their bottles as the year it all began. The next four hundred years were were not too easy for the Benedictine monks, suffering several brewery burning fires, plagues, destruction from war, and an earthquake to top it all off. Stil, every time that beautiful building atop the hill was destroyed, the resilient monks built it back up again.

So after 1000 years, did they finally get it right? Well, yes and no. The beer had a very weak aroma of banana, bread, toasted malt, and honey. Pleasant but certainly sessionable. The flavor followed in similar fashion. Let me just say that the taste itself is great: warm yeasty banana bread with caramel malt sweetness that tastes like a banana bread pudding with dark sugar sprinkled on top. However, the body is thin... very thin. With every sip I just wanted more and more taste, wishing I could just filter out half of the water while leaving behind the booze. Many consider Weihenstephaner to be the best of the Bavarian brewers, but for me Ayinger's dunkel was better. If you're used to big bold beers, I would skip this one.