German beer series: Eibauer Hefeweizen Dunkel
The fourth beer from Costco's Biergarten Collection is Eibauer Hefeweizen Dunkel, a dark wheat beer from the same Saxon brewery behind the Festbier. It's a textbook example of the style: banana and clove up front, a little dark wheat behind them, and a clean, light finish.
The beer#
Eibauer Hefeweizen Dunkel is 5.2% ABV and comes in a 500 ml (16.9 fl oz) can. The importer's style field calls it a "Dark Lager," but that's a mistake. A Hefeweizen is top-fermented with wheat beer yeast, which makes it an ale, and the importer's own description of a cloudy beer with banana and a spicy finish describes a wheat beer, not a lager. Neither the brewery nor the importer publishes a bitterness figure.
The brewery#
I covered Privatbrauerei Eibau in the Festbier post. It's a country brewery founded in 1810 in Upper Lusatia, in eastern Saxony. Like the Festbier, the Dunkel doesn't appear on the brewery's own website, so it looks like it's brewed for export. The brewery's 2022 DLG gold for its Hefeweizen appears to have gone to the pale version, not this one.
The style#
Wheat beer has an odd history in Bavaria. For centuries, brewing it was effectively off limits except under a ducal privilege. In 1548, Duke Wilhelm IV granted the Degenberg family the right to brew and sell wheat beer in northeastern Bavaria. When the last Degenberger died in 1602, Duke Maximilian I took over their breweries, and in 1603 he bought the only other wheat beer privilege. That gave the ruling Wittelsbach family a monopoly on wheat beer, and they turned it into a profitable state business. According to the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), the right stayed with Bavarian royalty until the late 1700s.
Those old Bavarian wheat beers were often dark, like most beer of the time. Pale Weissbier didn't take off until the 1960s, and the BJCP now calls dark wheat beer "increasingly rare" in Germany. Its guidelines describe Dunkles Weissbier as a moderately dark wheat beer with banana and clove over toasted bread or caramel malt, made from at least half wheat malt, with low bitterness and 4.3 to 5.6% ABV. At 5.2%, this beer fits.
The banana and clove come from the yeast, not from fruit or spices. Weissbier yeast makes isoamyl acetate, an ester that smells like banana. Certain wheat beer strains also turn ferulic acid from the malt into 4-vinyl guaiacol, which tastes like clove. In most beers that compound is a sign of contamination, but in a Weissbier it's the point.
Appearance#
Dark, with a deep caramel color and a thick head.
Aroma#
The classic German Hefeweizen aroma, with banana, clove, and toasted wheat, just like the box says.
Taste and mouthfeel#
Banana and clove come first, exactly what I expected. The dark wheat is moderately present, but overall this tastes like a darker version of a standard Hefeweizen rather than something richer and maltier.
The finish is very clean and light, with a gentle dark wheat flavor that's very pleasant. The body is light, lighter than I expected from a dark beer.
Verdict#
Gut. It's a great example of a dunkel Hefeweizen. Nothing about it stands out as exceptional, but it does everything the style asks, and I'd have another.
Previous in the series: Rittmayer Rauchbier