Johannes De Weize II

#weizen veel koolzuur en daarmee ook wat zurig. Weinig banaan.

330ml can. Cloudy, yellow-ish, bright golden colour with average, thick, dense, frothy to creamy, moderately lasting, minimally lacing, white head. Sweet-ish, wheaty malty and yeasty fruity, slightly yeasty spicy aroma, hints of banana and clove, a touch of honey. Taste is wheaty malty with some residual sweetness, yeasty fruity and slightly yeasty spicy, and minimally grassy and leafy, mildly bitter hoppy, hints of banana, some clove, a touch of honey, pear, mandarine. Creamy-watery texture, smooth and soft palate, medium, dense, mildly prickly carbonation. Harmonious and balanced, rather clean - very nice.

Magus, banaanine, nisune, puuviljane, õrn alkohol, kergelt õline. Ok, viisakas nisukas.

Can from Dok.
A: hazy yellow, small, foamy, white head.
A: (dried) banana, apple, peanut, dough, starch, clove.
T: sweet banana, pear; sourish wheat & citrus, dough, clove.
F: floral hops, banana, wheat, some bubblegum (undisturbing).
P: medium body, fluffy texture, average carbonation.
A worthy salute to the classic style.

Hefeweizen by Dok brewed on the initiative of one of its most trusted bartenders, Joeri, whom I have known personally for years and with whom I have talked extensively about beer styles, German and other; fermented with Weihenstephan yeast and containing an indeed 'whopping' 70% wheat malt, which is even more than the most wheat-forward of all traditional Bavarian Weissbiere (typically hovering around 40-50% wheat malt). Can bought at De Welkom (Dok's pub in the city centre) - from the hands of Joeri himself. Thick and fluffy, plastery lacing, cream white, initially audibly crackling, stable head (wheat-enhanced indeed) over a misty yellowish straw blonde beer with vaguely greenish tinge and columns of enthusiastic sparkling shooting upwards. Aroma indeed very Hefeweizen: banana bread and baked banana (rather than the banana candy often seen in Belgian ale styles), white bread, clove, some sourdough, sweetclover, touch acacia honey, powder sugar, starch, cooked sweet potato, pear blossoms, cherimoya, Liège waffles, freshly cut lemongrass, touch of basil flowers. Estery onset with that baked banana again next to pear, mangosteen and vague pineapple, sweetish but countered by the inherent sourishness of the underlying wheat, persisting through the whole, with mildly prickling carbonation to accentuate the sourish aspect. Lean bready pale malt core with that sourish, slick, white-bread-doughy wheat maltiness evidently remaining very prominent; minerally side notes here and there, connecting with the right amount of phenolic activity retronasally, bringing the old trusted clove (4-vinyl-guaiacol) to the stage as befits any decent Hefeweizen, combined with hints of pear blossom, sweetclover and daisies, as well as a light pepperiness of floral hops adding a background bitterishness which adds structure and lingers a bit but otherwise leaves the play of sweet(ish), sour(ish) and spicy(ish) untouched. I love a good Bavarian Weissbier and am often disappointed when attempts at this altogether delicate (and ancient) style are made outside of its home region, as mostly this simply does not seem to work, not even in the north of Germany; I recall the former popularity of the style in the Netherlands leading to overly sweet, banana-dominated, simplistic industrial renditions of the style, for example, but all that is easily forgotten here, because this may well be the first non-Bavarian Hefeweizen I come across that tastes eerily close to the originals. Frankly, bearing Joeri's deep knowledge of beer styles (and passion for German styles) in mind and combining this with brewer Janos's technical skills especially in German traditions, I guess this was to be expected, but still... One small thing, though: with the balance of the barley and wheat malts tilted a bit more to the barley side, as most traditional Hefeweizens do, I think a bit more backing breadiness could have been achieved. Nevertheless: this is an impressively successful attempt at this style without a doubt. Cheers Joeri, now for a Dunkelweizen!

18/V/24 - on tap @ DOK Brewing Company (Gent), BB: n/a (2024-326)

Little cloudy blond beige beer creamy white head, a little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: lots of bubble gum, some banana, sweet impression, banana candy. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: sweet, lots and lots of bubble gum, little bitter, wheat acidity, decent. Aftertaste: sweet, bit sugary, lots of bubble gum, lots of banana, ok.