Private Landbrauerei Scheuerer: Moosbacher: Weissbier (Germany: Hefeweizen: 5% ABV)
Visual: Cloudy ripe banana yellow color. Massive white bubbled head. Some small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Overripe banana. Wheat. Peppery. Orange skin. Grapes. Palma violets.
Body: Tart grapes. Slightly sour. Peppery. Palma violets. Bitter. Banana sweets. Slightly dry.
Finish: Banana sweets. Peppery. Greenery. Some bitterness. Bitty hop bits. Dry. Cut apple.
Conclusion: Well this is interesting. The aroma initially seemed quite standard, if good quality, hefeweizen. You know the routine – banana, peppery, an odd but not unheard of extremity of orange skin showing some innovation, but not so much to mess with the base style.
And then….
Palma violets notes come into it, that call more to the pilsner noble hop style than I would expect, and after that a much more odd tart grapes touch in the aroma which only gets heavier and really gets going when you sip the main body. It is fruity and lightly sour in a way that I really was not ready for.
It then becomes a tad more familiar again with the peppery, wheaty character of a weisse, just tarter and with those green grape notes mixed in, now with sweeter grape touches as well.
Does it work?
Kind of. It is refreshing, which is good for this summer heat. It is different, so not what I came to the beer for, but it is reasonable. The fresh, slightly sour grape against the pepper and bitter character actually calls to mind the lighter side of the gose – the Goslar made version where it is mainly a salted wheat beer rather than the heavily sour monster some interpretations are.
There is a cut apple freshness later on which really reinforces the green fruit imagery, and little of the banana backing that the aroma hints at – a choice I respect but I kind of miss the expected banana notes.
Not one I will return to much but a refreshing yet gripping wheat beer.
Background: Independent Spirit got a new batch of German beers in, including some breweries I had not seen before, so I grabbed a bunch, including this one – of which I had to look up what that first letter of the “Moosbacher” was as I was not 100% sure with the typeface. I went with their hefeweizen as it was one of the first beers that got me into finding out that there was more to beer than I thought. Also this also has a pop cap, which is something I always like. They are just fun. Not much else to add, went with Metallica: 72 Season as backing music – a pretty darn good Metallica album, glad to see they still have them in them.
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