Dark Wheat: it’s what’s for dinner
Ms. BeerGeek and I began gearing up for judging at this weekend’s Upper-Mississippi Mashout. One of the categories we’re assigned to judge is German wheat beers.
So, to go with tonight’s dinner of braised short-ribs, we picked the Schneider’s Dunkelweizen. It has a characteristically big banana nose (75%) with substantial clove (25%) notes, too. Playing a more supporting role were the caramelly, bread-crust Munich malt and bready wheat aromas. The malty flavors were more prominent, with caramelly and wheat-bread-crust highlights. The body was medium but lightened significantly by the high carbonation.
The pairing of dunkelweizen and ribs wasn’t perfect, but it prove disastrous either.
After dinner, we savored a bottle of Aventinus Weizen Eisbock. This was a true treat! The nose was full of dark fruit, dried cherries and raisins, and malt, smelling of baking bread, honey, caramel, bananas and just a bit of clove. In the aroma (confirmed by the warming in my tummy), the substantial alcohol (12% abv) made itself known, in a complimentary and welcome way. The flavor was similarly complex: dried fruit, caramel and wheat toast. This time the body was significant, though again a high carbonation moderated what would otherwise be pancake syrup.
I got the idea to taste the Aventinus with some aged-gouda we had in the fridge. The two paired better, bring out the caramelly-goodness in each other. The cheese really brought out the alcohol in the beer - as well as highlighting its sweetness.
It was a good night of “practice” in our home. I look forward to more warming up this week.
P.S. Check out the Schneider website. Scroll to the bottom to get it in English. Then follow the brewing process link to see their quirky animation!
