The Power of Suggestion

Recently I got an email from my B.I.L (brother in law) that included a picture of 3 beers (seen below), and a question about whether or not my M.I.L (let's see if you can figure that one out...) should buy any of them.  Strange because a) B.I.L doesn't really drink (and in his words "all beer tastes like Bud"), and b) M.I.L doesn't venture past Corona, or Killians’ Irish Red on a really crazy day.  I really didn't have much of an answer because I hadn't tried any of them, but I knew they were often cited as style examples in the BJCP (see previous posts for what this is, and why I would know this...).  So I figured,what the heck?  I'll give one of them a shot. 



Picture courtesy of my B.I.L

I chose the "dunkelweizen" (middle above) which means “dark, wheat beer”.  Usually not a choice of mine, but if the point of the blog is to introduce us all to new beer, then why not?



Weihenstephaner

Hefeweissbier Dark (Dunkelweizen)

5.3% ABV

 To make it official, I even went and got a weizen glass out of the closet and washed it just for the occasion (I can't fit ALL my glassware in one cupboard, and the weizen glass doesn't get much action around here).  The head on this beer was gorgeous, and took up most of the glass at first pour.  I let it settle, finished pouring, and what you see above is what the finished product looked like.  The white, rocky head on top of the mahogany beer made for a pretty good picture, and justified the extra effort. 

A spicy aroma hits the nose first, but I didn't get much of the expected banana scent often detected in these beers.  It was the spice and the wheat that dominated with no real hop aroma or flavor.  There was a slight bitterness in the finish (almost undetectable to my hop loving taste buds), along with a bit of an interesting tartness.  Definitely a malt driven beer that was sweeter than I expected, and I was happy about the lack of banana essence because it isn't my favorite flavor in beer.  Overall, not a style I'll seek out too frequently, but not a regrettable purchase (especially for $3.49 for the bottle...left more beer budget available than some other options!).  Give it a try if you are interested in learning more about German styles of beer.  It would even be interesting (to me anyhow) to do a side by side comparison of the dark and light versions.  Beer for thought I suppose.

So, at least I now have some first hand tasting experience to offer my beer limited family.  All in the name of beer education!

On a side note, if this one picture sent to me randomly "made" me go buy this beer, imagine what we could do if for one month we could take the advertising budgets of Bud/Miller/Coors and give them to the very best craft beer brewers in the country?  I'm not saying everyone would rush out and buy some Bell's Two Hearted, but hey, it would be worth a try to get the diehard fans of the "big three" to broaden their beer horizons!  Do they even know there are other, better tasting "pilsner" options out there?  I bet not. 

Wishing you all a great weekend, filled with friends, family and good times!

Cheers!

Becky