Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefeweizen
Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefeweizen
Rated 3.627 by BeerPals
Brewed by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Chico, CA, United States
Style: Hefeweizen
4.8% Alcohol by Volume
Availability of this beer is unknown
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It is a traditional Bavarian Hefeweizen that we have been working on for a number of years. We are brewing it in the old school German way, using only open fermentation and top-cropping the yeast. We have a yeast strain that is from a very small Bavarian brewery, and we are the only American brewery using this truly unique yeast. Here’s the story in a nutshell: Several years ago, we started working with a unique Bavarian Hefeweizen yeast strain. This amazingly flavorful yeast was so exciting that we began work on a year-round Hefeweizen. After several incarnations, the beer still wasn’t right. A handful of our brewery hopped on a plane and landed in Germany where they visited dozens of traditional breweries for inspiration. Eureka! Open fermenters were the key to the round depth of flavor in the traditional German beers. We’ve been making a portion of our beer using the difficult and labor-intensive technique of open fermentation for years. Manly Bigfoot, and some Pale Ale. Most modern fermentation takes place in closed, stainless-steel tanks; this method is efficient, quick and clean. In closed tanks, however, the yeast doesn’t have the opportunity to coax as much complexity from the fermenting beer. Using shallow open fermentation, the yeast has space to build layers of flavors and aroma that would otherwise be impossible. After seeing the technique in use in Germany, the inspiration to make Kellerweis in the open system took hold. The name is an homage to the German Keller, meaning cellar—the name breweries give to their fermentation systems, and weis, or weiss—the German name for “white” or wheat beer, hazy with suspended yeast. The flavor is rich with bready wheat notes and massive banana and clove… The finish is clean and crisp and the beer has a low enough ABV to be scarily session-able. We’re really excited about this beer. It something totally new and different for the Sierra Nevada lineup and we hope it will be a big success. The beer should be available toward the end of May and just in time for those hot summer days here in Chico that scream for a nice Hefeweizen. Kellerweis joins Torpedo as two polar opposites on the flavor spectrum. Both very different and both packed with as much flavor as we can get into the bottle.
ID: 34853 Last updated 2 weeks ago Added to database 15 years agoKey Stats
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Statistics
| Overall Rank | 1651 |
| Overall Percentile | 97 |
| Style Rank | 18 of 1008 |
| Style Percentile | 98.2 |
| Lowest Score | 2.7 |
| Highest Score | 4.6 |
| Average Score | 3.678 |
| Weighted Score | 3.627 |
| Standard Deviation | 0.455 |
Rating Distribution
Beer vs Style
37 Member Reviews
Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6
Sorry Sierra Nevada, Thumbs DOWN!I don't know how this beer is highly ranked. Very disappointing for me. My least favorite example of a Hefe. I thought it might be good because of the yeast content, at the bottom of the bottle, but I was wrong. Mystery to me, that it's in the top 500.
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Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7
Cloudy yellow/gold color with a foamy head. Aromas of banana, cloves and yeast. Wheat leads the flavor parade with a note of clove. Banana faintly moves in toward the end. A bit on the sour side with a bitter finish. Thin bodied. A good beer for a hot day like today.
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Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6
I understand kellerweiss are "clear" wheat beers, but the clarity detracts from the appearance of what a Hefe should be. Very average across the board. Slightly bready, Slight clove/ banana, light body, medium- medium high CO2. Nothing stands out. Much prefer standard hefeweizen
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Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6
Sorry Sierra Nevada, Thumbs DOWN!I don't know how this beer is highly ranked. Very disappointing for me. My least favorite example of a Hefe. I thought it might be good because of the yeast content, at the bottom of the bottle, but I was wrong. Mystery to me, that it's in the top 500.
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Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7
cloudy, yellowish in color, with a nice head that stays around for a while. Overall great aroma, but a little weak in "wheat" flavor for me. This is an excellent beer to have on a hot summer day expecially if you want more then 1.
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Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8
Had many bottles of this over the summer, but never rated. Smooth and sweet, more bubblegum-like than clove as the spicing was mild. Crisp and refreshing on a summer day. Excellent.
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Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6
I picked this beer up at Fresh Market in Roanoke, VA. I will admit that Hefeweizens are not my favorite style of beer; however, I found this to be enjoyable and better than most I have had. I'd drink this again. It was refreshing and citrusy - cloudy orange hue. Not a bad beer.
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Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5
This beer poured a translucent golden color, the aroma was weak in terms of a weizen, a bit yeasty. Flavor and mouthfeel were not that of a traditional weizen again a bit weak. Overall would not seek this beer out.
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Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7
This poured a light cloudy golden color. The aroma is very bready with some lemons and hint of yeast. The flavor contains a nice hit of wheat, lemons, and some cloves. The finish is sour. Overall this would be a good session brew but nothing amazing.
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Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8
Bottle straight out of the SL coolers, purchased as a sixer, consumed the first bottle on premises. A darned nice pour, great head and lacing, hazy cloudy golden-yellow colored pour. The aroma was bananas, esters, light spicing, well-balanced. The flavor was solid, great balance, perhaps one of the best American Hefe’s out there. I like these to err a tad on the spice side, so that was the only thing that dropped this from the best of its class. A great job by SN!
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Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8
The banana and clove aroma really hits you in the nose when you smell this beer. Very smooth hefeweizen to drink. Cloudy yellow pour with huge white fluffy head. The flavor is not over the top, it is well done and taste great! Good stuff!
