In the long and strong tradition of wheat beers in places like Germany and Belgium, the style has always been only modestly hoppy — until now. Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse is the result of the long transatlantic friendship of Brooklyn Brewery’s famous brewmaster Garrett Oliver and Hans-Peter Drexler, brewmaster of Bavaria’s legendary brewery G. Schneider & Son. Oliver had always admired the delicate balance of flavors in Schneider Weisse, a benchmark of banana-bready richness among German Hefeweizen beers. Meanwhile, Hans-Peter had long enjoyed the effusive citrusy hop character of Brooklyn’s East India Pale Ale. The two decided to collaborate, and a new style was born — the hopfen-weisse, a pale, hoppy wheat bock beer.

There are two beers in this series. The Brooklyner-Schneider hopfen-weisse is widely available in the Philadelphia area. It is made in the USA, at the Brooklyn facility, by the German brewer Drexler using American amarillo and pallisade hops. Oliver brewed another version, dubbed Schneider-Brooklyner, in Germany, with hallertau saphir hops, but it is more difficult to locate in the Philly area.

Both beers are absolutely delicious, a riot of fruity and yeasty flavor reminiscent of apple cake and banana muffins, livened up with a tangerine twist of herbal hop aromatics and a quenching bitter bite. Try them with sausages or smoked salmon.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under What to Drink, Wine & Spirits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Marnie Old on 1/22/08 in What to Drink, Wine & Spirits