Weihenstephaner Vitus (7.7% Weizenbock)
**** and a half
Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan, Freising
I know this beer is one several here will have tried but we are staring into the Covid abyss again, and so I may as well fill the void with beer reviews.
Weizenbock is one of my favourite styles of beer. There are light weizenbocks like this one and Ayinger, as well as darker ones (eg. Schneider Weiss Aventinus, Erdinger Pikantus). They're usually indulgent, often incredible.
This is a fair bit stronger than the 5.4% hefeweissbier, which is an already pretty full flavoured banana/clove classic, rendered super drinkable by the thick, yet light wheat. Is there a liquid equivalent of fluffy? Sorry for falling an adjective short.
Liquid fluffy is the placemarker until we find the right term.
While the standard wheatbeer has a slight orange/amber tinge, the colour of Vitus is slightly yellow/straw like, and of course unfiltered. With Vitus all the flavour elements are more pronounced. Immediately a whole lot more spice is noticeable up front and after swallowing, which results in a distinctive finish, not unlike
Gruit, which was a common feature of Northern European beer before the art of hopping was understood and properly utilised. The head on it remains in place the whole way through, always a good sign (clean your glass first too).
As with a lot of traditional brewers no Weihenstephan beer, including their doppelbock Korbinian, is as in-your-face as craft varieties. They are all pitched to balance flavour and drinkability, and this shows with the Vitus. It wouldn't stand out from a third of it, but you'd definitely take a pint of it over some craft beers. There is a skill to brewing strong beer that doesn't taste boozy and if anyone was really interested they could take a course at the campus based around Weihenstephan's brewery which is part of the local
college, another one of the marvellous things about this brewery. Having visited the site there is an almost monastic diligence to everything. A bit like Weltenberger and Kloster Andechs, they brew high volumes but the standard - for now - stays very high.
Ayinger weizenbock is a banana bomb sold in a smaller bottle, but this one is unashamedly sold by the half litre, because that makes sense based on how it is to drink. You can let a mouthful linger, or let it do the work in the background as you focus on something else - both are rewarding. You'd feel short changed by 0.33l of this.
