Style: pale doppelweizen
Twist: dry-hopped
with hallertauer saphir hops; collaboration with Brooklyn Brewery
Strength: 8.2%
Notes: the brewing/date code on the bottle reads “13 .
315” on one line and “210813” on the other.
Poured from a 500ml bottle into a Gaffel glass.
A hoppy doppelweizen made by one of Germany’s greatest
brewers of doppelweizen? Count me in,
even if it isn’t particularly fresh.
Pours a beautiful golden-orange hue topped by just under a finger of
foam. Head retention is even more
excellent, sticking around for quite a while.
True to style, Tap 5 is hazy and full of sediment. The sediment has a much grainier/sandier
particulate appearance than is typical of most German wheat beers, which are
normally cloudier. The carbonation is
ample.
Tap 5 Hopfenweisse smells even better than its darker cousin,
Tap 6 Aventinus. Huge banana, wheat, and
even peach greet the nostrils. Apples
and semi-grassy hops round out the aroma.
Zesty, fruity and tantalizing all come to mind.
At this point, the head still hasn’t receded at all.
The aroma almost perfectly carries over into the
taste. Flavors of banana, spicy clove,
wheat and hops seamlessly meld together.
Suggestions of other fruits---apple, orange---are there but a bit vague. The finish is quite long and much heavier on
the clove phenols rather than the fruity esters, with a slight hop bitterness
to balance it all out.
The texture is as soft and fluffy as any German wheat
beer I can think of. It ends on a bit of
a dry note, certainly drier than Aventinus.
I will have to do a side-by-side with my long-time
favorite doppelweizen (Weihenstephaner Vitus) to see how it stacks up, but I
would say this displaces Aventinus as my second favorite of the style.
This was reviewed as it was consumed on July 27, 2014.
Sounds delicious!
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