Origin: USA
Type: Weizenbier
Color: Pale Yellow
Alcohol content: 5.4%
Recommended serving temperature: 7ºC/45ºF
Brewery: Lexington Avenue Brewery
I have decided to write today about what has probably been my favorite beer from the ones I have tried in Asheville, the awefilling Hefeweizen from the Lexington Avenue Brewery.
I have explained in other posts how weizens are some of my favorite beers for the summer, given their refreshing and fruity flavor. It was therefore no wonder that I would pounce on it after spending a summer afternoon walking around Asheville. Still I had not expected to be this pleased with my choice. This beer was so good, that not even the incredible food they served at the brewery was able to overshadow it.
It is a hazy pale yellow color and does not really develop much foam. However, it does not really need any foam to showcase its incredible aromas.
Its smell is intensely fruity, displaying a strong banana like odor the likes of which I had never seen come out so clearly in this type of beer. It is rounded up by a bready biscuity touch and a hint of clover, but all of it much less intense than the incredible banana smell.
It is so vivid and outstandingly achieved that just the aroma is enough to make you hungry.
The flavor itself is by no means worse. It is also very banana-like, but with a richer breadiness to it, which, together with the wheat makes it nice and thick, almost like a banana and bread puree. In other words, you could say that while the smell makes you hungry, the taste is almost like being fed like a toddler.
The clover is quite faint in this beer, much less apparent than in other weizenbiers. Instead, the taste showcases a certain citrus flavor, which makes it all the more refreshing and fruity.
The aftertaste is pretty much exactly the same as the taste itself, leaving you with a slightly dry banana bread taste very pleasing, that just makes you want more.
Out of the different weizen style beers I have tried from the United States, this is without a doubt the best. In fact, I dare say at the risk of sounding borderline heretic to a German, that this is one of my favorite weizenbiers overall. It may not have the history or the specific characters of the Hofbrau or the Weihenstephaner, but it is a wonderful embodiment of what this style is and living proof that it can be cracked by a US brewery. Bavaria watch out, LAB is coming.
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