Schneider and Sohn: Marie’s Rendezvous: Tap X (Germany: Weizen Bock: 10% ABV)
Visual: Deep cloudy apricot. Thin off white dash of bubbles instead of a head.
Nose: Stewed apricot. Cloves. Honey. Ginger biscuits. Peppermint. Bready. Iced tea.
Body: Honey to mead. Quite dry. Light peppermint. Stewed apricots. Custard slices and icing notes. Raisins.
Finish: Dry honey. Light custard notes. Cloves. Stewed apricots. Raisins.
Conclusion: I have to admit I was expecting more from this. Schneider and Sohn have a long and proud brewing heritage, and this is a beer dedicated to the memory of that, doing their WeizenBock style. Their best in this style can be complex, subtle and yet still huge in what they provide in flavours.
Now this has the huge part down pat, unfortunately it is less so on the complex and subtle sides of things. Ok, that is overly harsh, there is complexity to it, but it has such a big honey sweet front that it can be hard to detect any of the rest of it. It is very booming sweet mead like at the front, dry mead at the back. The sweetness emphasis is so big that it can make it hard to make out the more traditional weizen characteristics.
If you let it warm, take your time with it then it does reward you by bringing out other notes. You get raisins and cloves that call subtly to the amazing Aventinus, beside that you get a peppermint freshness and a wodge of stewed fruit notes. In the end however, it all comes back to the honey. It feels like a mead beer, but needs to do more with the beer side of that to take advantage of it.
As a thick, sweet, honey touched beer it ok, but for a beer from Schneider and Sohn and a beer that is moderately costly, is a bit of a let down. It has a touch of spiciness that calls to its Weizenbock background, but it feels like it needs more. Something that you couldn’t get from mulling mead. Do people mull mead? Never looked into it…
Anyway, an ok experience but that feels like a let down when you look at what it could be.
Background: I do like like both Schneider and Sohn’s Weizen Bocks, and their Tap X range, so this is right up my alley. It is pretty well known that Aventinus is one of my all time favorite beers, so I wanted to see how this stacked up. Grabbed from Independent Spirit this was drunk with a bit of punk – Bad Religion: Generator to be specific, a fun album from a long time loved band of mine.
