TheBeerObserver

Spring eventually arrives each year in New England, albeit 4-6 weeks after the Red Sox season starts and about 8 weeks after I've had enough of snow & cold - despite my beer gloves.

Once it does warm up, though, my mind switches to one of my favorite beer styles - German Hefeweizen. "Hefe" means yeast, "Weizen" means wheat. Hefeweizen is a top fermented, unfiltered, bottle conditioned wheat beer with a noticeable yeast sediment and a cloudy appearance.

The perfect beer to enjoy outdoors, german wheat beers are light and heavily carbonated, with fruity acidity of apples, bananas, pears, and plums, often complimented with clove spiciness. Both the fruit and clove flavors are a result of Bavarian yeast strains - essential to creating an authentic tasting hefeweizen - substitutes need not apply.

In a nod to spring, Kevin K and I recently sat down for a hefeweizen tasting to see how this years crop of German hefeweizens were shaping up and compare then to a New England regional offering - UFO from Harpoon.

We started with Harpoon's UFO Hefeweizen in an effort to be fair. Truth be told, I've avoided this beer for years - blame the beer snob in me. Pitched as Harpoon's unfiltered offering, a little yeasty cloudiness in the beer might be appropriate. Compared to the other beers we tasted, this one looked as clear as a Budweiser.

Surprisingly, we both liked this beer - not as a hefeweizen, which is a mischaracterization - but rather as a good summer wheat beer, crisp, refreshing and easy to drink. This one would go down easy on a hot day at the beach or at a summer BBQ.

Next was Julius Echter Hefe-Weiss. Now this beer smells like a hefeweizen - a spicy fruit nose, apricot and pear notes with a hint of banana. The body is amazingly light - almost like there's nothing there. No hops, no bitterness.

All the flavor is in the back end - a yeasty, fruit finish, with a little bit of pepper in there. A refreshing beer, but surprisingly light.

The hump beer was Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen. Compared to the Echter, this hefeweizen had a much less fruity nose. Kevin expected Tucher to be the most aromatic, but while there were mild spice notes, it was surprisingly lacking in the nose. On the flip side, it had a much maltier body - you can really taste the wheat and malted barley. The fruit flavor comes on strong through the body, rather than in the nose. Tucher finished sweet and fruity. A worthy addition to our tasting, one I will certainly enjoy the next time I play soccer (or is it football?).

The next beer was Schneider Weisse Hefe Weizen. This beer was the most surprising of the tasting and certainly the darkest color. A deep orange, almost amber color - this beer poured with the least amount of head. Kevin got caramel and dark malts in the nose, I thought it was diacetyl - buttery with some green apple notes.

Unfortunately, this beer was in the worst shape of all the ones we tasted. Its a long boat ride from Germany to sit on store shelves for untold months - so the papery / cardboard / oxidized flavors are to be expected with imported beers and Schneider had them all. Overall, this hefeweizen had a little more spice and maltiness than the rest, but its showed its miles throughout.

Our last beer was a wild card - Harpoon's UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen. As a former brewer of blueberry, raspberry and watermelon beers (among others), I understand the appeal of fruit beers. However, I prefer to stick to fruit beers from Belgium - lambics, gueze, or framboise - and avoid the temptation of floating blueberries in my glass.

But that doesn't mean you can't taste a fruit beer, for the blog of course. And, when its the last beer in a 12 pack sampler. The UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen looks and tastes exactly like the regular UFO - with raspberry flavoring added to give it a pinkish hue and an overpowering fruit flavor. On the other hand, it was extremely carbonated - pumped up compared to UFO - and it was suprisingly drinkable - if pink, sweet and fruity is your thing.

Overall, it was a good tasting - a few surprises and fewer disappointments. I'm excited to try the new Sierra Nevada Kellerweis and taste a few more German entrants in the category. Bring on summertime.