Beer & Cookie Pairings: Hefeweizen & Thumbprint

The Eleventh Beer of Christmas 2022

Beer: Hefe-Weizen Brewer: Paulaner Brauerei Location: München, Germany Website: https://www.paulaner.de/ Style: Hefeweizen ABV: 5.5% Cookies: Raspberry Thumbprint and Chocolate Chip from United Supermarkets

The Tenth Beer of Christmas 2019 - Irish Wheat

When I think Guinness, I always think of Guinness Stout. From now on, I'll definitely think Guinness the next time I want something light, too.

Summary

• Appearance: Hazy straw with lots of chunky floaters
• Aroma: Lemons, bananas, white pepper, coriander, cloves, cracker
• Taste: Yeast, graham cracker, banana, a little lemon, and a little pepper
• Feel: Creamy texture, medium body

Stats

• Brewer: Guinness & Company
• Location: Dublin, Ireland
• Website: https://www.guinness.com/
• Style: Hefeweizen
• Alcohol Content: 5.3%

Blueberry Hefeweizen - Wasatch Brewery

The First Beer of Christmas 2018 is Blueberry Hefeweizen from Wasatch Brewery.

Summary

• Appearance: lightly hazy, gold with a little green in the light
• Aroma: blueberries, sweet malt, honey, banana
• Flavor: Sweet, a little pepper and bananas, definitely blueberries
• Feel: Moderate carbonation, medium body to start and a little thin at the finish.

Stats

• Brewer: Wasatch Brewery
• Location: Park City, Utah
• Website: http://www.wasatchbeers.com/
• Fruit: Blueberry
• Style: Hefeweizen
• Alcohol Content: 4.0%

Big Bend Brewing - National Park Hefeweizen

The Second Beer of Christmas 2017 is National Park Hefeweizen from Big Bend Brewing in Alpine, Texas.

Summary
My favorite beer from Big Bend and one of my favorite hefeweizens. Delicious and refreshing.

• Appearance: Hazy gold, small head, very little lacing
• Aroma: Yeast and spice, a bit of straw
• Taste: Lots of cloves, some banana. Citrusy lemon. Yeasty & filling.
• Feel: Rich feeling for a light to medium bodied beer.

Stats

• Brewer: Big Bend Brewing
• Location: Alpine, Texas
• Website: http://bigbendbrewing.com/
• Style: Hefeweizen 
• Alcohol Content: 5.5% ABV

Pyramid Breweries - Pyramid Hefeweizen

The Fourth Beer of Christmas for 2016 is Pyramid Breweries Pyramid Hefeweizen:

Summary
A middle of the road hefeweizen with a strong bread dough aroma but lacking in the spices and banana I expected in the aroma. The flavors are present in the taste but are not as clear and sharp as I'd hoped for.

Stats
Brewer: Pyramid Breweries
Location: Seattle, Washington
Website: http://www.PyramidBrew.com/
Style: Hefeweizen
Alcohol Content: 5.20% ABV

Big Bend Brewing - Big Bend Hefeweizen

For the Fifth Beer of Christmas, I drank a new favorite.

Big Bend Brewing
Big Bend Hefeweizen

I drank my first Big Bend beer (22 Porter) just over a year ago. Shortly thereafter I tried the rest of the lineup and then made the four hour drive to Alpine to visit the brewery. Given the complete lack of a craft beer brewer (other than brew pubs) in Lubbock, I now think of Big Bend as my hometown brewery.

The Big Big Hefeweizen is my favorite beer of theirs and my all-time favorite hefeweizen.

A pale straw color, the beer pours with a large, quickly forming head. So quick, in fact, that I had to take a drink just before I took the picture to keep it from overflowing. The head is a clean white with the normal hazy hefeweizen appearance of the beer itself. Small trails of bubbles continue to emerge all the way to the final drink leaving a small cap of foam even at the bottom of the glass.

The rich aromas of bananas, lemons and cloves fill the nose. A bit of black pepper and yeast ride the edges on a big sniff .

The taste follows the aroma with sweet bananas (almost fried,) cloves, and tart lemon. A lot of people will place a lemon in their hefeweizen. This one doesn't need a lemon. However, I have had it with a lemon wedge before and that is great, too.

A medium-weight body with a sharp carbonation, the beer is absolutely revitalizing and refreshing. Perfect on a hot summer day or next to a fire in the winter.

Big Bend recommends it with a number of foods including Mexican. I'll definitely be giving this a try on our next taco night.

With it's somewhat limited distribution (Western Texas and New Mexico,) you'll have to look hard or travel to find it. And it's worth the effort.


Stats
Brewer: Big Bend Brewing
Location: Alpine, Texas
Website: http://www.BigBendBrewing.com/
Style: Hefeweizen
Alcohol Content: 5.60% ABV
Interesting Note: Well, this is an epic bummer. Last January, I met Steve Anderson, Big Bend's brew master and the living legend who grew Live Oak (in Austin) to prominence. I Googled him just now to get a few facts about him because he's an interesting guy. I mean, he was the first brew master in the first brew pub in Texas.

I found this out 5 minutes before I typed these words: prostate cancer took Steve's life on November 25, 2015.

I feel abnormally sad at the passing of a man I hardly even know. In our brief encounter (just the two of us visiting for maybe 5 minutes during my private tour which was cut short by a freak snow storm,) I got the sense of a soft spoken, passionate, and giving man.

The brewery suggests that a donation to Pints for Prostates would be a good tribute to Steve.

Steve Anderson
January 13, 1962 - November 25, 2015
Photo from Big Bend's Website

Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu – Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse & Dunkel

For the Twelfth Beer of Christmas, we wrapped up our journey east with a stop in the country that celebrates beer like none other, Germany.

To get this brew, we gathered some friends together and went to a local bar known for it’s broad selection of beers. While there, we went for a hefeweizen two-for: Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse and Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel. Both beers are from the hefeweizen (unfiltered wheat beer) family with the dunkel being a dark wheat.

Franziskaner’s reputation for brewing great beer made these an easy choice from Cricket’s lengthy beer menu. Unfortunately, an unexpected complication dampened the enjoyment of the brew. I know this isn’t going to surprise you, but I didn’t think about it until it was too late. Cricket’s allows smoking in the bar. I know … shocker! A bar that allows smoking. But the tobacco haze, especially from the lady at the table next to us, killed the aroma of the beer.

The Hefe-Weisse, which we drank first, came with a slice of orange (as seen in the photos), and if you got in real close you could smell the orange. Short of that, nada. By the time we got to the Dunkel, I couldn’t smell anything.

Aaron, Wyatt, Brandon, and I enjoy some Franziskaner.

Both beers poured very cloudy as hefeweizens should. The Hefe-Weisse tasted creamy with mild carbonation and a wheaty taste. Of course, the wash of orange squeezed into the glass gave it a definite citrus taste. The hops were muted, possibly by the orange. It’s a decent beer, but I prefer Michelob Shock Top. Which is funny because Michelob is part of the Anheuser-Busch family, which is a part of the InBev family, which just happens to own the Spaten-Löwenbräu-Gruppe, which is, yes, the owner of Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu.

The Dunkel, on the other hand, had a stronger flavor and slightly heavier body. Cloves came through along with a toasted flavor from the darker grains. Again, the hops seemed muted. This was my favorite beer of the night but fell in the lower half of the scale in comparison to the other beers we’ve had since Christmas.

Stats
Brewer: Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu
Location: München, Germany
Website: http://www.SpatenBraeu.de

Hefe-Weisse	Hefe-Weisse Dunkel
Style: Hefeweizen	Style: Dunkelweizen
Alcohol Content: 5.0% ABV	Alcohol Content: 5.0% ABV

Interesting Note: While the Smithwick’s from a few nights ago comes from a brewery that is older than The United States, the Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu brewery (under another name) was founed in 1397 … nearly 100 years before Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World.