Did you know that there was a time when weissbiers - 'white' beers so named after the white colour wheat malt appeared when dried at low heat - was brewed only by those holding a royal decree, and only for the royalty of Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic)? And despite how popular it was when it was eventually opened to the public, times and palates would change after four hundred years and the beer style even almost went extinct if not for one brewery - Schneider Weisse.

It was fast times for Weissbiers for a good four centuries!

Weissbier: The Rise, The Fall, And An Extinction Averted

Whilst no one really knows who originated the weissbier, it is largely accepted that it traces its origins to Bohemia, and particularly around the 1400. We know this because historical accounts show that Hans VI, the Duke of Degensberg (that's a real place) had established the first and only weizen brewery (weizen's are full wheat beers, as opposed to weissbiers which are a mix of wheat and barley). At the time the ability to brew beers was only by royal decree, and for centuries that was the case. If you were someone who drank wheat beer, it was thought that you must've been high class or someone of great social standing! Initially these royal rights to brew wheat beer would be passed along as a matter of inheritance, yet eventually it made more sense to allow not just royals to make the beers, but to award royal decrees to specially appointed brewers in order to meet the demand. The wheat beer styles of weizens and weissbiers were incredibly popular in the area for centuries! It was rich, at times fruity whilst also being spiced, and had a very easy to drink quality about it, without being overly heavy.

Yet as lagers and brown beers came around the 1800's, that marked the start of the end for wheat beers. If you're someone familiar with the specifics of brewing, you'd note this as a turning of preference from top-fermented beers to bottom-fermented beers - this was as the improvements in refrigeration meant that lagers and dark beers could now be brewed even during warmer seasons. This made wheat beer brewing unprofitable and eventually the practice was just about to abandoned altogether, that was until Georg I. Schneider came along! 

The first Schneider Weisse brewery in Munich.

Six Generations Of Georg's And Why Schneider Weisse Is An Icon

Hailing from Munich, Georg I. would go to Bavaria to negotiate with King Ludwig II. to be given the same royal warrant to brew wheat beer - this was successful and Georg I. would be the first commoner ever to receive the right to do so! Georg I. then takes over an abandoned brewery in Munich, and then with his son Georg II., they would birth Schneider Weisse in 1872. Together they would brew the first commercial recipe that is still alive and well to this day - the TAP 7 Mein Original Weissbier. They would become the world's first registered wheat beer brand, and their popularity grew up until Schneider Weisse had become the largest wheat beer brewery in South Germany before the First World War. The two world wars to come would see the Schneider Weisse breweries completely destroyed, yet this would in a twist of fate, allow the fourth-generation Georg IV. to take over the Kelheim brewery - where they continue to operate from - which also happened to be the first wheat brewery to be established (in 1607) once the royal decrees were expanded beyond the royal family. Quite the full circle moment!

Schneider Weisse finds itself today in the historic Kelheim brewery!

In so doing, Schneider Weisse had successfully giving the wheat beer style much needed longevity, and tided it until it regained its popularity in more modern times! It's worth considering that because of the archaic laws around who could brew wheat beers, it was almost certain that if Schneider Weisse had not taken up the job, the entire category would be completely extinct by now!

Why's It So Hard To Make Weissbiers? And Why Does That Make Them So Special?

Yet another aspect as to why brewing wheat beers in accordance to traditional methods and as per Bavarian Purity Laws, which state that beers can only be made with malt, hops, yeast and water, is so difficult is because wheat beers brewing typically requires that the entire brewery be dedicated to just one style of beer. Traditional wheat beers are fairly unusual in that right after the first round of fermentation is complete, some spiese (the German name for unfermented wort which kickstarts a second round of fermentation that produces the intense carbonation in the bottle) is added, and after which it is bottled immediately without any conditioning or settling in any tank of sorts - this allows for a second fermentation to occur in the bottle itself, that completes after three weeks in the bottle - Champagne fans might notice that wheat beers bear some resemblance in this regard, and is why when popped, both produce a big foamy effervescent mousse or head!

Open top fermentation is like catching genie in a bottle.

On top of that, with traditional wheat beers, an open fermentation is called for, where the beer's wort openly ferments in its ambient surroundings, spontaneously with indigenous yeast - that's pretty much wanting to produce beers at a commercial level yet each brewing run has to require some bit of catching lightning in a bottle! Compare this to most beer brewing of other commercial styles that simply require the addition of brewer's yeast that kickstarts fermentation on the snap of a finger.

Another particularly interesting aspect to do with weissebiers is that brewers can play around with two unique flavours that are created as a result of their use of barley and wheat - they can either make a lighter and more fruity beer that gives off a particular banana flavour, or they can veer towards a darker and more clove spice heavy beer; or simply some combination of the two! With Schneider Weisse, their signature style has been to go for the more spiced flavour profile, with also two times the carbonation level of a standard beer. Although most weissbier makers have increasingly tended towards a lighter and more fruity style, Schneider Weisse has kept to its traditional hallmark of being heavier and more spiced.

Schneider Weisse Today

And thus today Schneider Weisse remains incredibly popular and historic in Germany and pretty much worldwide, for safeguarding the tradition of producing wheat ales. It is today helmed by 6th-generation Georg VI. Schneider (yes that's 6 successive generations of the family being given the same name), and as a matter of evolution, Schneider Weisse has since the 2000's begun to introduce some newer expressions that now undergo conditioning (the Kristallweizen and the Mein Alkoholfrei), and have even enshrined as a core beer a collaboration with America's Brooklyn Brewery, the Meine Hopfenweisse.

Today we'll nevertheless focus on the classic Schneider Weisse's - the ones that originate from the brewery and have followed the brewery's classic process of doing two fermentations, with the second in bottle, with no conditioning done - which includes the Schneider Weisse Original Weissbier, Helle Weisse, Festweisse (the Oktoberfest classic), as well as the very special Aventinus Weizen Doppelbock and Aventinus Eisbock, and finally the Schneider's Helles.

Beer Review: Schneider Weisse Original Weissbier

The OG! This is Schneider Weisse's Original recipe (TAP 07) which has been brewed in accordance to the original recipe of Georg I. from 1872. This is brewed with Hallertau Tradition and Hallertau Herkules hops, along with a combination of wheat and barley malt. It is open fermented for the first round, and bottle fermented for the second round; unfiltered and non-pasteurised. It comes in at 5.4% ABV.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Amber

Aroma: It's rich with honey, with also a rustic quality of wheat about it. Yet behind that sweet honey is something more savoury, much like drops of teriyaki glaze, along with some well-woven notes of cloves and cardamom - it's bright, yet rich and umami. Overall very aromatic with a big honey profile.

Taste: Incredibly rich here, still keeping with that big honeyed note, and again with that savouriness of teriyaki glaze. Broadly still very honey driven, it's rich and almost alittle bit syrupy, with a side of umami savouriness that becomes increasingly prominent into the finish. It's very creamy, medium-bodied, yet feels fuller from the richness. There's some caramel in here as well, along with those spices of cloves and cardamom. It's pretty consistent with its aromas. It does also come with a pretty saturated and pronounced carbonation.

Finish: A nice crisp finish here. There's more of that cereal quality of wheat, along with a lingering taste of that honeyed savoury umaminess of teriyaki.

My Thoughts 

It's very cohesive and consistent across the entire tasting experience. The flavour profile here is broadly marked by rich honey, savoury umaminess, some wheat, as well as a well integrated spice combo of cloves and cardamom. It's all very cohesive and rounded, the flavoured are seamlessly interconnected, almost as if everything was coated in honey that was somehow a spiced and umami savoury honey of sorts. It opens with a pretty intense carbonation, although the carbonation is actually not as noticeable on the palate, and sort of melds perfectly in the body keeping it brighter and more effervescently lighter, holding up against the richness of the body. It's a big and bold beer that has a masculine and dominant profile, as opposed to being gentle and delicate.

Beer Review: Schneider Weisse Helle Weisse Weissbier

This is TAP 01, the Schneider Weisse Helle Weisse. It's brewed with a variant of Hallertauer hops, using Hallertauer Tradition and Hallertauer Saphir, along with the same wheat and barley malt. As is Schneider Weisse tradition, it's open fermented and bottle fermented, unfiltered and non-pasteurised. It comes in at 4.9% ABV.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Gold

Aroma: Really savoury here, and also very wheat heavy! Here the honey takes the backseat. It shares a similar profile as the Original Weissbier, but instead is much less honeyed.

Taste: Medium-bodied, it's really smooth and approachable. It's not as heavy yet keeps some of its richness. Here the honeyed savouriness is much more pronounced, along with more Japanese rice crackers, giving it a rice-y and toasted bread-y savouriness. It's overall lighter and more moderately rich, just a touch thinner on the body, with a more pronounced rice cracker quality. Really savoury too.

Finish: More runny honey here, it's not as crisp. There's also a lingering savoury umaminess of that teriyaki glaze that carries on for quite some time.

My Thoughts 

Compared to the Original Weissbier, this one shared broadly a similar profile, yet here this was definitely lighter bodied and less honeyed, and with less of that umaminess as well. Instead this was more rice and wheat driven, with a big toasted rice cracker note on the palate that gave it a slight dryness as well as a big savouriness. Into the finish, this was less crisp, with more of the honey and savoury umaminess making an appearance - here it was perhaps most similar to the Original Weissbier.

On the whole I found the Helle Weisse, smoother, lighter and more approachable, it's not as dominating or as heavy and feels more sessionable or that it would be good for food pairings with say BBQ - or simply to be paired for snacking. This is rather reminiscent to Spanish or Mexican Cervezas, and at times alittle familiar to Japanese rice lagers.

Beer Review: Schneider Weisse Festweisse Weissbier

What's the best beer festival of the year? Oktoberfest!! And so we've got Schneider Weisse's Festweisse Weissbier. This is a wheat beer that has been made in accordance to traditional Oktoberfest beer recipes. This is made with New Zealand Cascade and Hallertauer Tradition hops, along with wheat and barley malt - all of which are organically grown! As is Schneider Weisse tradition, it's open fermented and bottle fermented, unfiltered and non-pasteurised. It comes in at 6.2% ABV.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Gold

Aroma: Incredibly honeyed, there's some umaminess in the background with a couple of drops of oyster sauce, along with some well-integrated rice scents. It has a good richness to it, it all comes together very cohesively; really aromatic and fresh!

Taste: Medium-bodied, it's on that honey with a more pronounced umaminess of teriyaki sauce, along with some crispness already on the palate, with also some of those rice crackers. The honey is dominant here, with a pronounced umaminess mostly emerging at the back. It has a very nice richness and roundedness to it, and is very cohesive.

Finish: Clean finish here, more of that umaminess as the rice notes peak. It then fades into a softer richness of umami teriyaki sauce and honey once again.

My Thoughts 

This again keeps that Schneider Weisse identity, yet this was by far the most cohesive and rounded of the lot - that three part combination of honey, savouriness and cereal all came together perfectly. Incredibly seamless and woven together so perfectly. I found this also to be very well-balanced between the flavours, without being overtly sweet, umami or cereal, they all took their turn to have a fair share at being the most pronounced at various junctures. Worth mentioning also is that the effervescence here is also really well executed, and the crispness here comes earlier even on the palate before we even get into the finish. I like that this strikes a good middle ground between the Original Weissbier and the Helle Weiss - the Festweisse is moderately rich yet with a great balance. Oh and great freshness too!

Beer Review: Schneider's Helles, Schneider's Landbrauerei Helles Landbier / Bayrisch Hell

Before we continue on the Schneider Weisse train, we're going to take a brief interlude here to try something much more new - this is Schneider's Helles, which comes from a little project by the chief brewer of Schneider Weisse, Hans-Peter Drexler, who has worked with three generations of Georg's, to come up with this.

The idea here was to revive and old family recipe which pays homage to Schneider Weisse's heritage in Lower Bavaria. They had wanted to produce a beer that would best reflect the people and terroir of their spiritual home and thus made use of hops from Hallertau and barley from Straubinger Gäuboden - both relatively near Schneider Weisse' brewery in Kelheim (where this Helles is also brewed - it's sort of like their craft beer project). This is brewed to 4.9% ABV.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Light Gold

Aroma: It opens up aromatic with big, bright and fresh, rustic scents of honey and wheat. There's lots of honey jelly at the core, fanning out into a lighter runny honey that expands out. Really great aromatics here!

Taste: Medium-bodied here, really good richness. That incredibly honeyed quality continues on to the palate, here with a slight savouriness of charred meats. More of that honey jelly, firm and supple, yet also crisp and of wheat and Japanese rice crackers into the finish. This leans sweeter, with much more prominent runny honey notes here that gives its body a good richness and depth.

Finish: More of that Japanese rice cracker savoury wheatiness, along with a slight dryness here. Some of the honey does carry through to the finish, along with more of that savouriness of burnt ends.

My Thoughts

This is definitely my favourite so far! It's bright, fresh and rustic, with a really pure quality about it - that unfiltered character really shines through here. This also had a really nice richness about its body, filled in greatly with loads of supple honey jelly and runny honey, which when compared to the Helle Weisse, this feels much richer, and not as light or hollow despite also sharing that rice cracker flavour. The overall profile here also differs quite a fair bit from the Schneider Weisse style - because of course it's a totally different style - where we don't get so much of the umami savouriness and spices here, with this being much sweeter and brighter. This is really refreshing, easy to drink, and simply very likeable.  

Beer Review: Schneider Weisse Aventinus Weizen-Doppelbock

And we're back on the Schneider Weisse train! We come now to some of Schneider Weisse's heavier beers - this is the iconic Schneider Weisse Aventinus! This was created by an important matriarch of the Schneider family, Mathilde Schneider, who at one point had led the company - the only one to break the chain of Georg's. She had wanted to brew a beer that had more weight and impact amidst the post war years to really demonstrate that Schneider Weisse could deliver more bang for buck. And thus the Aventinus was created, the first Wheat Doppelbock in Bavaria (in 1907), and so named after the Bavarian historiographer Aventinus.

This is brewed with Halletauer Herkules hops, along with wheat and barley malt, and is open fermented and bottle fermented, as well as being unfiltered and non-pasteurised. This comes in at 8.2% ABV.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Dark Copper Brown

Aroma: Big on that raw honey, with more of a treacle quality. There's also that deep umami savouriness with drops of oyster sauce and charred burnt ends. It has a cleanness about it that comes off alittle thin at the edges, yet it still holds a good richness at the core.

Taste: Really rich here, big on that treacle and honey note, it's medium-bodied with a good richness and yet isn't heavy and doesn't weigh on the palate. It has an oily slickness that comes from the oiliness of charred meats, along with a savouriness to it as well. There's also a slight herbaceousness to it, reminiscent of coriander mixed in soy sauce.

Finish: Abit more of that charred meat savoury umaminess, yet persistent with that rich honeyed base. It's more savoury into the finish.

My Thoughts

The big thing about this is just how treacly it is, with an overall sweeter yet more umami savoury and herbaceous aspects to it as well. Yet despite how it might sound, it's not particularly heavy, and at times has a cleanness about it that makes it seem alittle thinner than it really is on the nose. On the palate, I found this superb. That treacly, honeyed quality richly coats the umami savouriness, with that more pronounced bit of savouriness of charred meats bringing it up a notch with more sharpness and intensity. I found the body incredibly cohesive and enjoyable, with a really nice combination of flavours that reminds me of Cantonese braised meats, in particular sweet and umami pork ribs dipped in soy sauce garnished with chopped chillies and coriander.

Beer Review: Schneider Weisse Aventinus Eisbock

And finally the last of this tasting session - the Aventinus Eisbock! This one uniquely comes in a much smaller format bottle, and also the heaviest of the lot! This has been matured using a special freezing process and also makes use of a special recipe. Hallertauer Herkules hops is used here along with the classic wheat malt and barley malt. Uniquely, this is only open fermented, with no secondary bottle fermentation due to that special frost maturing process! It's unfiltered and non-pasteurised, and comes in at 12% ABV.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Dark Amber Brown

Aroma: Really thick and syrupy here, much more of that treacle and honey, along with a side of umami savouriness of sweet oyster sauce. It's very cohesive, seamlessly integrated and rich. Really big and bold aromas here.

Taste: Much thicker, syrupy, full-bodied here. It's all that treacle and honey, yet taken up several notches. The umaminess here is more towards the background, giving sweet oyster sauce and charred meats. This is really rich and much denser, yet incredible bold and cohesive in flavour. It does nevertheless come off rather boozy.

Finish: That richness persists with a lingering sweetness of that treacle and honey, along with more of that umaminess of thick sweet soy sauce.

My Thoughts

This is pretty consistent across the tasting experience - from start to finish, it tastes as it noses, with this incredibly rich and thick, syrupy quality of treacle and oyster sauce or sweet soy sauce. It shares a similar profile with the Aventinus Doppelbock, although this is just made much, much more concentrated and bold. That said, what it's impressive here is how despite the much higher ABV, it's still really rounded and seamless in how the flavours come together, and is really luscious and velvety, and surprisingly easygoing. This was my second favourite of the lot, and I preferred this to the Aventinus Doppelbock!

Kanpai!

@111hotpot