Kuchlbauer: Turmweisse (Germany: Hefeweizen: 5.9% ABV)
Visual: Ripe banana skin to apricot coloured body. Very large mounded yellow white head.
Nose: Bubblegum. Banana soft sweets. Light cloves. Cinnamon. Fresh white bread. Orange skin. Vanilla.
Body: Wheaty. Peppery. Slight golden syrup. Moderately thick. Slight apples. Slight lemon. Coriander.
Finish: Vanilla to vanilla ice cream. Sour dough. Peppery. Slight bubblegum.
Conclusion: This opens so interestingly. It has a slightly darker body on the eye than a lot of weizens have – not super unusual, but a tad less common so has my interest from the start.
The aroma is a mix of traditional weisse notes and more unusual bubblegum like character, with the familiar banana notes coming across more as soft banana sweets than the usual style. A mix of the familiar traditional notes and innovation and quirks. A good start to my eyes.
The body is … fine .. but less than that. It is slightly sweeter than expected, prob due to the higher abv. It is recognisably wheaty and peppery, but is nowhere near the interesting style the aroma promises. If is fine but not exciting.
Same sort of thing out into the finish. As time goes on you get nice quirks like the apple touches in the body, or the familiar coriander comes out, but overall it feels slightly underwhelming.
Not bad, but not matching its promise, nor shining through in other respects.
Background: Don’t think I have done notes on a Kuchlbauer beer before. Independent Spirit have been doing really good at getting a variety of German beers in recently, of which this is one, so I grabbed it. For two main reasons. One, it has a pretty bottle label and I am shallow. Two I have a soft spot for hefeweizens as they were the first odd beer type I tried that started my love of trying different beers. So that is that. Went with Esprit D’air – Constellation as backing music, since seeing them live I have been on a massive kick for their music.
