There is a small hill in Bavaria – not much to look at from the outside, maybe forty meters high, perched above a quiet town called Freising – that holds the record for having brewed beer continuously for close to a thousand years. The Weihenstephan hill sits about forty kilometers north of Munich, and if you take the S1 on a crisp Bavarian morning, the journey feels surprisingly short. What greets you at the top, after you've walked through the monastery gardens past university students on bicycles with laptops in their baskets, is not what you might expect. The cellars – fifteen meters below the surface – are immaculate stainless-steel tanks, climate-controlled and spotless. The brewhouse smells of warm malt and wet grain. This whole enterprise is run by a former Deloitte consultant who is also a professor at one of Germany's premier universities and who, one summer in the early 2000s, ran out of German wheat beer and decided that was absolutely not going to happen again.

 

 

Weihenstephan Brewery officially holds the Guinness World Record for being the planet’s oldest continuously operating brewery dating back to 1040. But this is not your typical old-world brewery story.

The brewery is ancient, yes – but it is also a modern institution that has spent the last two decades becoming more aggressively and unabashedly promotional about the demanding tradition it carries. The beers are no longer made by monks, but they are very well-made versions of styles that were defined by the monks who first brewed them. They are also known to virtually every serious brewer on the planet as reference points and, for their yeast strain alone, the very biological building blocks of countless breweries' wheat beers.

To know the story of Weihenstephan is to know the fundamentals of Bavarian brewing, German beer law, the role of science in tradition, and why, sometimes, the most valuable thing a brewery can do is refuse to change what already works.

A Saint, a Bear, and a Hill

The Bavarian fable begins with a Frankish hermit and a bear.

Around 720 AD – three centuries before any brewing license existed – a man named Korbinian arrived in the Bavarian settlement of Freising after a pilgrimage to Rome, where Pope Gregory II had consecrated him bishop and dispatched him northward to convert pagans. Korbinian was the kind of figure medieval hagiographers (biographers of saints) loved: ascetic, stubborn, apparently blessed with the ability to command wild animals.

 

 

According to the Vita Corbiniani, a bear killed Korbinian's pack horse en route to Rome. Korbinian, unfazed, commanded the bear to carry his luggage the rest of the way. The obedient beast became his emblem – it still appears on the Freising coat of arms and was later adopted by Pope Benedict XVI, who served as Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

 

The Freising coat of arms.

 

With twelve companions, Korbinian established a small church dedicated to Saint Stephen on a hill west of Freising's center, along with a modest monastic cell. The hill would come to be known as Nährberg ("Nourishment Hill").

Within a few decades of the monastery's founding, there is documentary evidence that a hop garden in the surrounding area was paying a tithe – ten percent of its harvest – to the monastery. This is one of the earliest documented references to hop cultivation anywhere in the broader region, and it has fuelled reasonable speculation that brewing was already happening behind the monastery walls long before any official license was ever granted.

 

(Source: Dr. Mirko Junge / Wikimedia Commons)

 

The community left by Saint Korbinian on Weihenstephan hill evolved and developed over the next centuries, first as an Augustinian canons monastery (a house for ordained clergy who would preach to the masses, rather than monks), then converted in 1021 under Bishop Egilbert into Weihenstephan Abbey of the Benedictine order – the same order that would define European monastic brewing. This was the earliest documented use of the name “Weihenstephan” to refer to the place.

Weihenstephan officially lays claim to the year 1040 – this is the presumptive year that the monastery was officially licensed by the town of Freising to brew and sell beer commercially – not just for internal consumption. Some beer historians have disputed the brewery’s claim, arguing that the date was based on a forged document from the 17^th century. There is in fact another beer-brewing monastery located about 30 kilometres away called Weltenburger that traces its origin to the year 1050 and could also legitimately claim to be one of the world’s oldest breweries.

 

The Weltenburger abbey which also brews and sells beers.

 

Be that as it may, whether 1040 is the right year or not, the narrative has done extraordinary commercial work for the Weihenstephaner brand. It is on every bottle. It is the first thing every importer, journalist and beer enthusiast repeats about Weihenstephaner. Nobody in 2026 worries about this murky medieval history – there’s almost certainly been brewing on that hill for somewhere between nine hundred and thirteen hundred years.

Nine Centuries of Catastrophe, Rebuilding, and Stubbornness

Even setting aside the exact founding date, the brewery’s survival through the darkest ages of medieval history is genuinely astonishing.

Between 955 and 1463 alone, the institution endured four complete burn-downs, a devastating Hungarian invasion, three plagues, famines and a great earthquake. During the wars of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, first the Swedish then French armies plundered and torched the site, then the Austrians did the same. Each time, Benedictine monks rebuilt, and even more remarkably, their brewing culture survived while they refined their equipment with each reconstruction.

 

Engraving of the abbey from the 1600s. 

 

A monastery brewery was a working engine – it produced food-grade calories for fasting monks, a safe and nutritionally dense alternative to water during periods of fasting, a product to sell and trade.

The Beer Purity Law Question, and a Peculiar Historical Monopoly

The brewery proudly champions the famous Reinheitsgebot (Bavarian Beer Purity Law of 1516) known to all beer geeks today – which mandated that beer could contain only barley, hops, and water – was proclaimed practically at its doorstep by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, with the intention to safeguard the affordability of bread by ensuring beer brewers did not bid up the price of wheat and rye.

 

 

Weihenstephan’s enthusiasm for the famous Beer Purity Law today is somewhat ironic. Despite being the world’s standard-bearer for hefeweizen, the law did explicitly ban non-barley grains from beer production. For 300-odd years, Weihenstephan was legally barred from selling its wheat beers that are so beloved today.

Through the 16^th to 18^th centuries though, wheat beers were available in Bavaria. This was because of a sneaky carve-out that enabled the aristocratic house to monopolise the Bavarian wheat beer market. While the Reinheitsgebot was issued, the aristocratic Degenberger family continued to hold a special license to brew wheat beer.

So while the law protected the price of bread for the masses, it also handed the court a highly profitable monopoly over wheat beer that the nobility happened to love – this monopoly lasted until 1812. The monks of Weihenstephan presumably knew wheat beer well and may have brewed versions of it before the monopoly locked them out for 300 years.

The Monastery that Became a Science Lab

In 1803, during the sweeping secularisation of Napoleonic Europe, Bavaria dissolved the Weihenstephan monastery along with hundreds of other religious institutions.

 

 

All possessions and rights transferred to the Bavarian state and the monks were dispersed. But the brewery – the revenue-generating asset – survived. It was placed under the management of the Bavarian state.

But this also marked a new era for Weihenstephan Brewery. It was decided that this was an ideal place to establish a brewing school. It began with a one-semester “Brewer’s Course” which attracted students from other parts of Germany. The curriculum expanded over the years and by 1895 the humble brewing school became officially the Royal Bavarian Academy of Agriculture and Breweries. Then it became a college where students could earn full-fledged degrees. By 1930, the institution became incorporated into the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where it now exists as the TUM School of Life Sciences.

 

(Source: BLQ Weihenstephan / TUM — Research Center Weihenstephan for Brewing and Food Quality)

 

Today the TUM campus at Weihenstephan includes not just the state brewery but five small-scale research breweries, a distillery, a large-scale teaching brewery, and one of the most extensive yeast collection banks in the world – the Hefebank Weihenstephan – which cultivates and distributes yeasts used in breweries globally.

This is the institution that educated the modern batch of German beer brewers. The textbooks written by TUM’s professors are used as references across Europe and beyond. The W-68 yeast strain maintained and distributed by the Hefebank Weihenstephan is said to be the most widely used wheat beer yeast in the world and is the primary commercial yeast sold in homebrew stores across America. The brewery and TUM have even jointly developed new brewing methods, including a special vacuum evaporation process used to produce the Weihenstephaner Alcohol-Free Beer.

Weihenstephan’s Modernisation Sprint

For a brewery with such a remarkable historical claim, it is run by a director with an atypical background. Former Deloitte management consultant Josef Schrädler was hired to run the brewery in 2000. And thus began the brewery’s twenty-year modernisation sprint under Schrädler’s watch.

 

Prof Josef Schrädler, Director of Weihenstephan Brewery.

 

In Schrädler’s retelling, plans for a dramatic expansion were formulated one summer in the early 2000s when the brewery suddenly sold out its wheat beer. Demand outstripped supply completely. This convinced Schrädler that the brewery ought to carefully expand its production to serve this demand.

Intentionally, the brewery grew over the years, first by extending the fermentation cellars, then commissioning fifteen additional brewing tanks, a state-of-the-art bottling plant and other works that trebled the production capacity. In 2019, after an ambitious two-year construction phase, the brewery opened a large €16 million logistics centre on a separate industrial estate in Freising because the Weihenstephan hill had run out of space to grow.

 

Weihenstephan's own fermentation/conditioning infrastructure.

 

Schrädler also patiently built the Weihenstephaner brand in new export markets, first by slowly building a fan base in restaurants and bars before selling the beers on shelves. Under his leadership, Weihenstephan grew from 11 export markets to over sixty.

What Happens on the Weihenstephan Hill

The basic brewing process at Weihenstephan follows German law: water, malt (barley and/or wheat), hops, and yeast. The spirit of the Bavarian Purity Law continues to be enforced by modern beer regulations, albeit in updated form. Bottom-fermented beers such as lagers, helles and bocks are still restricted to using barley malt. Top-fermented beers such as ales or wheat beers (weissbier or hefeweizen) were allowed to use other grains.

After the typical mashing and lautering process, the resulting wort is boiled with hops in a kettle. In Weihenstephan's case, the flagship hop is traditionally Hallertauer Mittelfrüh, along with aromatic varieties like Hallertau Select and Sapphire depending on the beer, grown just near the brewery.

 

 

For the wheat beers, the famous W-68 yeast is the beating heart of the whole operation. And while the state brewery does not publish its exact mash schedule, we can infer from papers published by TUM-Weihenstephan researchers that the brewery remains committed to using traditional brewing methods to express a signature balance of banana vs. clove –the central creative variable in any hefeweizen.

Traditional hefeweizen brewing involves a step called the ferulic acid rest – where the mash is allowed to rest at around 45°C (113°F) before the main saccharification temperature. This allows a distinctive enzyme called ferulic acid decarboxylase to become active and convert ferulic acid into 4-vinylguaiacol (4VG), the precursor of the clove-like phenolic compound that gives hefeweizens their characteristic spice. Many mainstream commercial breweries no longer bother with this step due to time and complexity.

 

Chemical formula of isoamyl acetate, the "banana" ester.

 

At the same time, the brewer needs to calibrate for competing processes in the mash that push the balance towards banana esters (isoamyl acetate) at the expense of clove character – this can be caused by higher fermentation temperatures and lower yeast pitch rates.

After initial fermentation – which takes approximately one week – the beer goes into the medieval storage cellars fifteen meters under the monastery garden for maturation, for approximately thirty days, during which the “green beer” rounds out, the yeast settles or remains in suspension as intended for the style, and the carbonation stabilizes. Underground temperature is naturally stable, hovering around 4–8°C depending on the season, which is ideal for slow cold conditioning. The equipment might be gleaming and contemporary, but the principle is very old.

Weihenstephan is also particularly proud of its alcohol-free process used to make the Weihenstephaner Alkoholfrei beer. Unlike many breweries that produce non-alcoholic beers by halting fermentation early – a method that leaves residual malt sugar and results in a sweeter, less complex product – Weihenstephan allows its alcohol-free beers to ferment and mature fully before removing the alcohol. The method used is called “falling-film vacuum evaporation”, a process jointly developed with TU Munich.

 

(Source: Weihenstephan)

 

In vacuum evaporation, fully fermented and matured beer is heated at sub-atmospheric pressure, which dramatically lowers the boiling point of ethanol and allows it to evaporate at temperatures that do not damage the beer's aroma compounds. The result is a non-alcoholic beer that retains the full flavour development of its alcoholic counterpart and still tastes like a decent wheat beer. The Alkoholfrei process was also significant enough during the pandemic that the brewery pivoted its dealcoholisation ethanol toward disinfectant production for Bavarian medical staff.

The Oldest Brewery that is Still Growing

The thing about Weihenstephan that continues to surprise people who encounter it expecting either a museum piece or a trendy craft operation is that it is neither. The brewery still waits thirty days after primary fermentation before releasing its beers. It still uses only Hallertau hops. It still cultivates its own yeast strain rather than buying in commercially. However, the brewery runs a state-of-the-art bottling plant. It has pioneered dealcoholisation with its researchers, and launched product collaborations with California’s Sierra Nevada, Boston’s Samuel Adams and even Belgium’s St. Bernardus. Its beers are much more attainable than traditional monastic operations – they are available at nearly every ALDI in the country, in German restaurants in New York, or on the shelves of specialist bottle shops in Asia.

 

 

Another thing that sets Weihenstephan apart from its competitors such as Paulaner, Erdinger, Schneider Weisse, Augustiner, and the Munich triumvirate (Hofbräu, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr), is that it enforces a much higher degree of scientific rigour and consistency. The brewery's quality control is conducted by TUM's laboratory next door, not by a commercial lab, which means every beer leaving the hill has been assessed by the same university that trains the German brewing industry.

Schrädler, who has been running the brewery for over 20 years, remains both its managing director and professor at TUM, and the brewery's turnover has roughly quadrupled under his watch.

Weihenstephan is not just a story about antiquity. It is also a story about what happens when institutional memory – the knowledge passed from brewer to brewer, the yeast cultivated across generations, the hops grown within earshot, the underground cellars maintained through floods and fires and secularisations – gets married to modern scientific ambition and, eventually, to the strategic pragmatism of a manager who wanted many more people to experience its great beers.

 

(Source: Erman Gunes)

 

The beer itself is not old. But it carries within it the specific aerobic preferences of its yeast and the specific resin chemistry of Hallertau hops and the specific mineral profile of Freising water, refined by different communities of people across centuries, on a hill that has been producing beer since before the concept of Germany existed. That is the spirit that is irreplaceable about Weihenstephan. The oldest brewery in the world is, in the deepest sense, a place that hasn't stopped improving itself.

Beer Review: Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, 5.4% ABV

This is the flagship wheat beer of the brewery and also a benchmark against which the style is often measured. While the exact proportions are not disclosed, it is estimated that the Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier consists of about 70% wheat malt and 30% barley malt.

 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Hazy golden-amber.

Aroma: Toasted cereal and a warm, honeyed maltiness, with a soft floral lift sitting just behind. There's a gentle banana note further back, alongside sweet tangerine peels and a light touch of clove.

Taste: Medium-bodied with a dry, toasty grain character and a rounded texture. Opens with lemon peel and grapefruit sweetness, followed by a bit of fresh apricot and soft banana again. As the beer warms slightly, more toasted grain returns with toasted nuts, a hint of vanilla and a dusting of pepper spice.

Finish: Long and citrus-dry, with more of that toasted cereal running through. Cloves and subtle nuttiness linger, and there's a slightly savoury, bready depth underneath it all. A clean hop bitterness appears at the very end.

My Thoughts:

This is balanced, but it's a bit more striking than many wheat beers I've come across. The yeast character is more assertive here, and there's noticeably more depth to work through. What I kept coming back to was the toasted cereal quality, the crisp and well-placed acidity, and the way the richer grain notes sit alongside that distinctive but soft banana cream character without either dominating.

Compared to typical commercial German wheat beers of the same style, it carries a bit more robust yeastiness, spiced intensity and also a slightly more pronounced citric dryness. It's very drinkable, very flavourful, and feels authentic without being stuck in the past.

 

Beer Review: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel, 5.3% ABV

This takes the same yeast profile and marries it to dark wheat and crystal malts, adding roasted malt character to the fruit-and-spice framework.

 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep caramel.

Aroma: Opens with toasted glazed buns and toffee, a caramelised banana note that blends into something doughy and sweet. There's a soft cacao edge and a dense, almost molasses-like richness sitting underneath. Some mild herbal syrup quality coming through as well, a little like Chinese Pei Pa Koa syrup alongside a savoury depth in the territory of Marmite.

Taste: Rich and toasty, with pillowy foam. Caramel and toffee come through clearly, alongside banana bread and a maltose sweetness. There's a warm, almost Christmassy spice quality to it, and the whole thing has the character of a slightly burnt fruit cake, sweet and dense.

Finish: Caramel and nuttiness persist, with hazelnut and almond notes alongside more of that fruit cake character. Toffee lingers, a touch of molasses sits in the background, and a lightly citric dryness at the tail end brings it all back into balance.

My Thoughts:

This is dense and round with a full, rounded mouthfeel, and it takes a little patience. The nose is initially a bit indistinct, but as it warms, it opens up considerably and becomes quite decadent. It really delivers on the palate and finish where it becomes very well-developed, layered, leaning much more into richness, with nuttiness, caramel and molasses tones compared to the flagship Hefe Weissbier, while fruitiness takes a small step back. But it doesn't overdo it. It also feels lighter and fresher than the Vitus (which we’ll cover later on), which sits in heavier territory. A good middle ground in the range.

 

Beer Review: Weihenstephaner Kristallweissbier, 5.4% ABV

This uses the same yeast and wheat beer base as the original Hefe, filtered to remove the haze and suspended yeast. The result is a crystal-clear, golden-yellow beer with finer carbonation and a lighter mouthfeel.

 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Clear light gold.

Aroma: What feels like a sort of smoked coriander herb, smoked cream and smoked meats - it’s a mix of earthy herbaceousness, light sweetness and a sort of charcuterie meaty brininess.

Taste: Medium-bodied but feels hefty, it’s buttery with notes of honey, coriander, and a light meatiness, with some bits of lemon zest. A very light bitterness sprinkled with white peppercorns.

Finish: A clean finish, somewhat vaguely floral, with a slight bit of herbaceousness and honey. Quite malty with more chewy barley sugar sweetness coming through as well.

My Thoughts:

I was quite floored by the aromas which had an incredible smoky quality that I found outstandingly aromatic. On the palate, it was a clean but well done mix of witbier and lager profiles coming together - it had a really nice buttery texture with otherwise brighter and slightly savoury notes. The finish too was clean and fairly enjoyable with a nice bit of chewy barley sugars coming through at the end.

The aromas were probably the best part, but all in, a very enjoyable and sessionable brew - definitely something you could bring to a party and impress.

 

Beer Review: Weihenstephaner Vitus Weizenbock, 7.7% ABV

The Vitus is the showpiece of the range and perhaps the most praised by beer enthusiasts. This is a wheat bock – meaning that it applies the hefeweizen yeast and wheat malt bill to a stronger, higher-gravity beer that is then given a longer maturation period in the monastery cellars – just like a lager. The additional fermentation time and higher alcohol level push the yeast toward richer, dried-fruit ester production.

It’s worth noting that typical Weizenbocks are much darker in colour, whereas this is a more balanced pale Weizenbock. The brewery describes it as not a typical bock and more like a “noble, fruity wheat beer”.

 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep gold.

Aroma: There's quite a bit going on here. Dry apricots, granola and honey at first, layered over a sweet, bready maltiness with an edge of orchard fruit and citrus. It's dense and aromatic, with sweet buns, a marmite-like depth and a light toasted quality running through.

Taste: Dense, rich and noticeably strong. It almost feels like drinking a brown spirit at moments. Grapefruit and dried apricot sit alongside a very rich cereally backbone, with honey, the slightly burnt crust of banana bread, ginger bread cookies and a touch of chocolate adding weight. There's a warm bite towards the back, something like rum spice that reminds you of its alcoholic strength.

Finish: Medium in length and quite clean for a beer of this style. More of those dried fruit and cereal notes carry through, joined by liquorice and a long, clean maltiness. Caramel and candied orange peel emerge, with a touch of yeastiness and a faint persimmon quality. Warmth lingers gently on the back of the throat.

My Thoughts:

This is a very fulfilling beer that makes a strong case for the wheat bock style – and it’s my favourite of the entire Weihenstephaner lineup. It's dense, strong and warming as it goes down. What surprised me is how drinkable it remains despite the richness and the higher alcohol. It's full and layered but never cloying, and there's still a crispness running through it that keeps everything in check. This is one for those who enjoy a stronger, more warming style, but still done with real discipline. I'd happily sit with a large bottle of this on a cool evening.

 

Beer Review: Weihenstephaner Original Helles, 5.1% ABV

The Original Helles stands apart from the wheat beers as Weihenstephan’s primary lager: an all-barley Munich-style Helles that pours light golden, crystal-clear, with a soft floral hop note from Hallertau varieties.

This is made using traditional decoction mashing – the older, more labour-intensive process in which a portion of the mash is removed, boiled and returned to the main mash – which produces more Maillard reactions (melanoidins), a fuller body, and a rounder character.

 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Clear gold.

Aroma: Bright, fresh and quite vibrant. Citrus fruits and a lemon candy sweetness come through cleanly, backed by a softer malty note. There's a bit of floral hop character sitting quietly in the background.

Taste: Lighter in body than the wheat beers and very crisp, but still expressive and flavourful. A rich malt sweetness comes through early, followed by cereal and toasted grain notes that give it more substance than you might expect. There's a bit of orange and dry apricot sweetness in there as well.

Finish: Medium in length. It’s cereally and toasty, with a quality that reminds me of milk coffee. The toastiness comes up again towards the back but feels more balanced now, less assertive. Trailing toasted malt notes that fade cleanly.

My Thoughts:

This is very malty and a very flavourful Helles, but what I find most impressive is how it handles its subtleties. Compared to the wheat beers, this is comparatively restrained in its richer notes and yet still very expressive where it counts. The floral notes, the crisp citrus, the bright maltiness are all clearly defined and well-placed.

It's incredibly drinkable, but that shouldn't suggest it's unchallenging. There's real character and memorability here and it makes me keep wanting to go back for another sip.

 

Beer Review: Weihenstephaner Korbinian Doppelbock, 7.4% ABV

This Doppelbock is named directly after the Weihenstephan monastery's founding Saint Korbinian, and its label even depicts the bear-taming legend. Turning the malt register all the way up, this is built around dark Munich malt with additions of crystal malt and roasted grains, then fermented with a bottom-fermenting lager yeast (a departure from the hefeweizen yeast used across most of the range).

The decision to name this Doppelbock in honour of Saint Korbinian might be because this style of beer is linked to the monastic practice of Paulaner monks in Munich who would brew Doppelbock as liquid sustenance during Lent - their month-long season of prayer and fasting. Doppelbock was referred to by the monks as “liquid bread” and is the style that kept German monks alive through their fasts.

 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Stout black.

Aroma: Dark treacle, treacle soda bread, a slight bit of charred burnt ends and burnt plastic, rather savoury umami notes of oyster sauce and Vegemite as well - very malty, mellow and rich. There’s a little bit of mulled wine here, before settling into black coffee and roasted herbs and spices of clove, anise, parsley and fennel, lightly herbaceous, gristy and toasty.

Taste: Medium-bodied, gentle but rich, with sweet notes of caramel accompanied by slightly bitter notes of charred burnt ends, and also a splash of soy sauce. Some roasted chestnuts, black coffee, and cocoa, also treacle soda bread.

Finish: More savoury umami notes of oyster sauce and Vegemite, alongside some parsley herbaceousness, before melting into a sweeter, more malty bit of butter cookies and fresh bread. Last bits of coffee grounds.

My Thoughts

Very well rounded and executed Doppelbock - it has great rich aromas layered with sweet, savoury, bitter and earthy notes that move seamlessly from aromas to palate and finish, all being consistently present and cohesive. It has a superb thicker texture too to complement the richer notes, with no flavour dimension being overly dominating or sharp - they’re all rounded and well integrated into what is really a very symmetrical flavour profile. It’s never one thing, it’s always a combination of the various flavours expressing themselves in unison.

Despite the rich flavours and thicker texture, it doesn’t ever even get close to being cloying, always offering up its flavours and then cleanly fading away, leaving a great aftertaste, also never too thin, acidic or tannic. I only could ask for a thicker and full body which would’ve really nailed it.

Really enjoyable, super solid beer for a cold day or just a cozy night!

 

Beer Review: Weihenstephaner 1516 Kellerbier, 5.6% ABV

The Kellerbier is one of the more unusual entries in the range: an unfiltered lager, amber-copper in colour, made as a direct tribute to the Reinheitsgebot's 500th anniversary and now a regular in the lineup. What makes it technically interesting is its hop bill: Head Brewmaster Tobias Zollo uses the rare heirloom hop variety Hallertauer Record – grown on barely one hectare of farmland – alongside the more common Hallertauer Mittelfrüh. The beer is centrifuged to a precise degree, leaving faint amber haze.

 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Hazy orange / raw honey.

Aroma: Light yeasty quality, raw honey, with a sort of unpasteurised scent of farmhouses, very reminiscent of cask ales. It levels out to raw honey and a touch of oyster sauce.

Taste: Full-bodied with more of that raw honey, hay, a touch of lemon and orange peels, also some coriander. There’s some distinct yeastiness and again abit of that umaminess of oyster sauce.

Finish: A light umaminess of soft cheese rinds, and also some bitterness here, that all fades out into soft, chewy sweet cooked barley.

My Thoughts

I enjoyed this very much! It strikes me as a cross between a Festbier or a Cask Ale crossed with a Witbier. It had lovely natural and raw flavours that felt really fresh - like I was at a Euro countryside festival of sorts - and at the same time offered up some complexity in a palette of yeasty, sweet, umami, bitter and herbaceous notes that came together very well. It was well integrated and felt like it was just poured out a cask - what also stands out was how full-bodied it was that made it very smooth and easy to drink. The final touch of soft chewy cooked barley was also pretty delightful.

Very enjoyable, easy drinking stuff!

 

Beer Review: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Alkoholfrei, 0.5% ABV

The brewery is particularly proud of this alcohol free wheat beer.

Unlike most non-alcoholic beers on the market, this is fully fermented and matured before the alcohol is removed using a special vacuum evaporation technique co-developed with TUM, rather than having fermentation stopped early (which produces an overly sweet, worty note).

The brewery claims that the result is a more authentic non-alcoholic beer than most.

 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Gold with slight haze.

Aroma: Malty and toasty up front, with a rich herbaceous note that sits somewhere between grassy coriander and caramelised Japanese sweet potato. Caramel follows, along with a bit of hop bitterness and a raw bread dough quality. There's that worty-sweet note that tends to be more prominent in non-alcoholic beers, but it doesn't dominate here.

Taste: Opens with a substantial and pillowy texture, with a balanced acidity. Orange peel and ripe banana come through, alongside coriander seed and an indistinct yeastiness in the background.

Finish: More of that grassy, herbal sweet potato note returns, with yeastiness and citrus flesh carrying it forward. Some pithiness comes through towards the far end, and a bit of floral hop character at the far end.

My Thoughts:

This is refreshing and surprisingly rich in texture. It's a bit lighter and less cohesive than the others in the range, which you'd expect at this ABV, but the texture itself is genuinely impressive and gives the beer real presence. What works particularly well is how clearly the clove and ripe banana notes come through, perhaps even more distinctly than in some of the alcoholic versions, if a little sweeter than usual. For a non-alcoholic wheat beer, it's very flavourful and avoids the hollow, overly sweet quality that plagues most of its competitors. One of the better alcohol-free beers I've had!

 

@CharsiuCharlie