The classic wheat double bock or weizenbock from Munich – and not a dunkel weizen! The high test version of Schneider Weisse. The brewery’s bottling hall was on Aventine Street according to Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide.
This beer has all the moreishness supreme of the mere weisse but with even more zow-ka-pow and zam! It pours that funny grey tinged brown that reminds me of gravy with a tan head. In the mouth it is a cacophony of spices and creamy malts and yeasts: nutmeg, all spice, clove plus caramel from brown malts, raisin from crystal malt and a good bread crustiness from pale malts. There is a cutting hop as well that is below much of these flavours as well as a bright acidity that may have a lime tone. The water feels soft but there is so much going on it is a little hard to tell. In the cream yeast, banana and soft apple like Golden Delicious.
One of my favorite beers.
[Original comments…]
Grant Goodes – February 6, 2006 3:42 PM
Yes, Aventinus is one of the reasons I can’t say I hate German beer (though I sometimes suspect that it’s secretly brewed in Belgium..). It’s also VERY good on draught if you can find it.
I used to get it in Copenhagen in a little bar called Charlie’s. In bottles, there’s a nice serving trick you can do with it (though it takes a little practice): Swirl the bottle (to get
the yeast sediment suspended), and directly upend the bottle into the “proper” glass (the Schneider glasses are tall, and the bottle fits into the glass perfectly). The bottle will empty until reaching the neck, at which point you slowly lift the bottle to carefully drain. You can control the amount of foam, and should be able to end up by lifting the bottle high into the air to drain the last of the thick foam in a contiuous stream. Careful, though, I’ve seen slightly too-warm beer result in a quickly over-flowing mess.
john – March 26, 2007 6:08 PM
The Bier Garden in Portsmouth VA sells a great deal of this stuff on tap. It’s their best seller. (And you cannot get a Bud.)
That is one distinctive beer.
Jon Tower – March 20, 2008 3:26 AM
I googled, “Aventinus proper glass,” just before I poured my first bottle of this (I had it at Shallo’s in Indianapolis once, but didn’t see the pour and wondered if he had poured it in the proper glass, it was a pils). So this page came up, and I’m ever thankful for the beer community. What…a…beer. IT’s so borderline Belgium, and I think it’s intriguing the choice of glass is the tall, full bottle glass (which I prefer) instead of the stem-glass typically served with a beer such as this.