March 5, 2009: Weihenstephaner

The city of Munich was founded in 1158 A.D. The first holy crusades started in 1095 A.D. The legendary King Charlemagne was born in 742 A.D. These events occurred so long ago that they almost seem like they never happened at all.
Weihenstephaner beer? Try 725 A.D. Talk about ancient.
Weihenstephaner beer claims to be the oldest brewery in the world today. In 725, German monks founded a monastery on the Weihenstephan hill over looking northern Bavaria, where they first began their tradition of brewing. Although the official date that the brewery was founded and recognized as a business by the nearby city of Freising is listed as 1040 A.D., brewing at monastery has been documented as early as 725. Today, almost 1300 years later, Weihenstephaner is still brewed by the same tradition started by the monks in the little monastery on the hill. In theory, Emporer Otto I could have been drinking Weihenstephaner in celebration of uniting the Holy Roman Empire in 926 A.D. 1300 years? The number seems staggering and unfathomable. How could anything possibly last last 1300 years? Some of the greatest empires that the world has ever known haven't even come close to lasting that long. How in the heck did this brewery stick around?

I couldn't get my head around the fact that I was about to drink the oldest beer in the world. I wasn't sure what to expect. Would it taste like beer as I know it? Would it taste anything like the myriad brands of beer that have come into existance since it was first brewed? Would it be any good? All of my questions and worries were laid to rest when I took my first sip. In the modern beer market, it is almost impossible to stick around as a viable brand if you create an inferior product. The pretenders are quickly sniffed out by experience beer drinkers and are exposed. The reason that Weihenstephaner has been brewed consistantly for over a millennium boils down to the simple factor of quality. Make no mistake about it, Weihenstephaner is a top quality beer. Nice crisp finish, creamy white head, cloudy golden tint; this beer looked like an absolute dream when poured into the glass. The great thing about this beer was the complex flavors that jumped out with the first sip. Really spicy, possible hints of coriander, clove and wheat, but the most amazing flavor was banana. Surely the banana flavor is an unanticipated by-product of the brewing process, as bananas would have been completely unknown to the German monks that founded Weihenstephaner for another 500 years at the earliest. Still, the banana flavor adds an interesting twist to an otherwise very traditional Hefeweizen. Weihenstephaner is very similar to a hefeweizen that I sampled only a few days ago called Hacker-Pshorr, only the Weihenstephaner was simply superior in almost every aspect. I'm beginning to become a bigger and bigger fan of Hefeweizen's with every new one that I try, and right now Weihenstephaner tops of list of my favorites. I found it on sale at my local specialty shop, and I urge everyone to seek this one out if you can.

Prost,
Ian

http://www.brauerei-weihenstephan.de