Schneider Weiss Original (5.4%)

After far too long an absence, Bavaria’s oldest wheat beer, rechristened Schneider Weisse Original – or rather restored to its earlier moniker after spending some time being known as Schneider Tap7 – is back in Ontario!  

For those unfamiliar, this is the beer that started the Bavarian wheat beer tradition, originally brewed for the benefit of the Bavarian royal family and ultimately ceded to Georg Schneider, who assumed the lease on the royal Weisses Brauhaus in 1856 and opened his own brewery to continue and expand production in 1872. If you have ever enjoyed a wiessbier or hefeweizen – the translations are respectively ‘white beer’ and ‘wheat beer with yeast,’ but they are interchangeable – then you have tasted the tradition Georg Schneider spawned.

These days, the Schneider beers, which include the doppelweizenbock, Aventinus, the punchy Hopfenweisse, and the newer Helle Weisse, are brewed in a four century old complex in Kelheim, Germany, about 100 kilometers north of Munich. As per tradition, they are all open fermented and bottle conditioned, and presently overseen by the sixth generation of Georg Schneiders.

For those accustomed light gold or sandy-hued wheat beers, the rich brown-ish gold colour of the Schneider comes as a bit of a shock, but remember that its recipe was written before modern technology gave brewers wide-spread access to extremely pale malts. Beneath its generous collar of dense white foam, the beer releases a gentle perfume of clove and peppery spice, with just a whiff of the style’s trademark banana-y fruitiness, but more in the form of lightly roasted and caramelized banana rather than fresh fruit.

The start of the flavour is mildly sweet with retro-olfactory clove notes, a touch of caramel, and a hint of lemony citrus. In the mid-palate, the robust but wonderfully quenching character of the beer comes to the fore, with elevated spiciness – more pepper than clove, although with hints of allspice and cinnamon – baked apple joining the banana esters, and a hop bitterness light enough to be barely perceptible but sufficiently notable that it dries the beer thoroughly on the finish.

Remarkable in its refreshment, delightful in its appeal as a first or second beer of the day, this is a true classic more than worthy of its exalted place in brewing history. As I look out the window at -13° temperatures and fast-falling snow, it is also a little taste of summer amid the unrelenting cold of winter.

96 ($3.95) VALUE PICK