Plank Heller Weizenbock

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

This is one beautiful beer. It pours a deep orangy-gold colour with a huge frothy white head. The aroma consists of grains, caramel, and spices. The flavours in this meld together quite well resulting in an easy drinking and flavourful beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A somewhat vigorous pour almost flows over the top of my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip glass, instead it for ms a full finger of foam above the rim of the glass making the frothy, off-white crown of foam a full five-fingers in height. The beer is a hazy, orange tinged copper color that shows more of an orange-gold color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite bread like with notes of yeasty dough, ample clove, tart wheat, grassy grain as well as lots of fruity aromatic notes. The fruit aromatics remind me of a mix of aromatic apple varieties and pears though there might be a faint lemon-like edge to it as well. This really has a full malt character to it that is a bit more pronounced than you would expect in a normal strength HefeWeizen, but this mostly smells like a traditional Hefe. Quite a nice aroma, I am really enjoying the various components here.

The Weizenbock strength comes through in the sweetness that is in the flavor; still this is a Weizen and the sweetness is fairly soft with a nice grain-like edge to it. A prickly carbonation adds a bit of texture through the middle of this beer and manages to help the body have a lightness to it. The body is a touch fuller than one would normally find in a Hefe, but it is not so full that this is still not an obvious derivative of said style. Clove-like phenols boost the perceived sweetness of this beer and play a more dominant not to the other traditional fermentation note of banana that is only slightly noticeable. The finish has a light tartness to it as well as a touch of peppery spiciness and a some cracker like grain flavors. My second pour of this reintroduces a significant carbonation that makes each sip quite lively with a peppery carbonic bite and a zippy texture.

This is quite nice, it tastes like a traditional HefeWeizen with the volume turned up just a touch louder for just about every aspect.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

This weizenbock pours a hazy yellow gold color from a 50cl bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is malty and slightly tart. A medium bodied weizenbock. The malts are fruity and sweet, lots of citrus and some caramel. The hops are spicy and herbal. Good carbonation. Nice balance. Decent beer. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Honestly, this is a lot like their hefeweizen: big wheat, too low on the yeasty aromas, and two strong on the carbonation. However, this one is a bit richer and sweeter with the malt and there’s the peppery alcohol behind the other aromas adding an extra bit of dimension.