Tabernash Weiss

Product Reviewed: Tabernash Weiss
Brewed by: Tabernash Brewing Co.; Denver, CO
Reviewed by: David Brockington
Original Posted to Usenet: August 8, 1994
Updated: March 22, 1995
Updated: October 28, 1996
Updated: April 24, 1998

Initial Impressions:

This was the only beer that I allowed myself to do a complete analysis of while at the 1994 Oregon Brewer's Festival on July 30. It was the second beer that I had sampled (it followed a Baderbrau Pilsner) and it was certainly the one that I was anticipating the most. If one were to read either rec.food.drink.beer or alt.beer on much, one would likely witness the occasional debate which contests American Wheats against Bavarian Weizens. While I admit a preference for the Bavarian version, noted by its use of a special yeast strain which produces a bevy of assertive flavor compounds, such as esters and phenols, during fermentation, I do acknowledge that the American (especially as seen in the Northwest and Northern California) interpretation counts as a legitimate style. While the esters and phenols requisite in a Bavarian Weizen produce clove and banana notes in the beer, the examples from Widmer, Pyramid, and others utilize a more pedestrian strain of yeast which produces a "clean" product lacking in the aforementioned flavor notes. This tends to make the Northwest-style wheats bland in contrast to their Bavarian cousins.

The big problem with weaning people off of the American and onto the true Bavarian is that there simply are few Bavarian versions brewed in North America, and those beers that are imported generally (but certainly not always) suffer in transit. Weizen is a style that simply deserves to be consumed relatively fresh. However, with the opening of Tabernash Brewing in Denver, we knew that there would be at least one quality Bavarian interpretation that we could count on; Eric Warner, the brewmaster, brings three distinct qualifications to the new brewery. First and foremost, Warner holds a Diplom Braumeister degree from Weihenstephan, in Freising, Germany. Second, Warner literally "wrote the book" on the style of Bavarian Weizens, having penned German Wheat Beers in 1992 for Brewers Publications' excellent series on classic beer styles. Finally, Warner garnered a gold medal at the 1992 National Homebrew Competition in the German Wheat category. Clearly, Warner brings a wealth of experience and technical acumen to the style.

On the flip side of this, it is sometimes difficult to translate a love for a given beer style into a project that is commercially solvent. Whereas a homebrewer, brewing on an extremely small scale and as a hobby, can easily afford to purchase the very best and most appropriate ingredients for a given style, the logic of the marketplace has a larger say in the running of a professional establishment. The practical consequences of this is that most brewers in North America rely upon domestic 2-row barleys as their base, and often employ domestic versions of traditional hop styles. While they clearly can not be faulted for this, in certain styles the use of ill-suited ingredients is apparent to even a palate of average experience. In my opinion, Bavarian Weizen is one of those styles. Hence, my interest was doubly piqued when I learned that the Tabernash Weiss uses imported malts (both wheat and barley), and hops (Perle and Northern Brewer) from Germany. In a similar vein, procedure is also important to beer style, and the more time-consuming decoction method generally is employed in brewing a Bavarian Weizen. As expected, Tabernash presently does not have the facilities to employ an arduous decoction regime in the brewing of their beers, due to its requiring extra mashing vessels rather than the more common one used by those microbreweries dedicated to brewing British-style ales. Decoction or not, my expectations were high upon sampling this beer.

The beer itself presented a deep pale hue in the glass, with appropriate and expected cloudiness. The head was pale white, displaying wonderful retention and lacework down the side of my plastic (ugh) festival mug.

Nose:

The bouquet explodes with the expected clove phenolics and banana esters, indicating that an authentic Bavarian yeast strain was employed in the brewing of this beer. All other things being equal (brewing method, ingredients, etc.) the yeast strain is of singular importance when brewing a Bavarian weizen, and Tabernash has such a strain, and is clearly not afraid to use it.

Flavor:

This was a medium-full bodied beer going down, with the clove phenolics and banana esters dominating the profile, but not egregiously so. The middle was noted by a chunky, wheaty maltiness, which then slid into a finish highlighted by a tangy wheat flavor coupled to the merest of hints of hop bitterness. There was no discernible hop flavor.

Final Analysis:

This beer fulfilled my expectations, and then some. The clove and banana behaved as one would expect out of a Bavarian weizen. The hops were utilized in perfect fashion, with no nose or flavor hops coming through, and only the smallest hint of bittering hop, which served as a nice sophisticating note (as if this beer really needed one). When I tasted it, I was under the impression that it was not decocted. If not, it did not suffer as a result, in that the middle had that "chunky/malty" flavor that one gets with decoction. Perhaps a high conversion temperature coupled with the use of top ingredients? Needless to say, the beer was "clean" in that it completely lacked what one would consider a technical fault.

1994 Rating: *****

(5-star scale)

Postscript 1, March 1995:

Of primary note is that Tabernash Weiss took a Gold Medal at the 1994 Great American Beer Festival, establishing itself as one of the top Bavarian Wheat beers brewed in North America. However, it has also come to my attention that the pounding the U.S. Dollar has taken in the foreign exchange markets recently has made it unduly expensive to rely upon malts imported from Germany. Hence, Tabernash has switched over to domestic malts. I have been told that the qulaity of the beer has not suffered due to the change. In addition, Baltimore Brewing's Bavarian Weizen has drawn rave reviews from respected sources, and that beer is made with Canadian and U.S. malts. I should have an opportunity to re-sample the Tabernash in early April on a trip to Denver and Boulder.

Postscript 2, October 1996:

Two summers ago when I sampled Tabernash for the first time, there was a paucity of true Bavarian-style wheat beers in the United States; only homebrewers seemed to be making them. I liked Tabernash a lot, found it to be better than my own homebrewed version of the style (and it is rare that a commercial beer will beat out a good homebrewed beer for most styles), and awarded it a perfect rating.

Since then, Tabernash has switched from imported German malts to domestic malts, and the promised decoction of this beer never materialized. I can not say for certain whether the ingredient change or the passage of time has taken away some of the luster of Tabernash but my sampling of it at the 1996 Oregon Brewers Festival left me with the impression that this beer has slipped -- slightly.

The clove dominates the flavor profile, which is very nice. I tend to prefer Bavarian Weizens that tend to the clove over the banana. In most respects, this beer is still a great interpretation of the style. The only thing that I would like to see in it is that the body and maltiness be a bit more "chunky". This chunkiness can come from decoction, and this is a chunkiness that Victory Sunrise Weiss has.

1996 Rating: ****1/2

(5-star scale)

Postscript 3, April 1998:

Apparently I had received false information from several sources regarding the ingredients and methods used in producing Tabernash Weiss. Boyd Johnson, an employess of Tabernash, sent me the following email in May of 1997:

Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 19:15:57 -0500
From: BoydJohnson@sprintmail.com (Boyd Johnson)
Message-Id: <199705150015.TAA17868@alpha.rollanet.org>
Subject: Tasting comments (WWW server)
Apparently-To: daveb@alpha.rollanet.org

BoydJohnson@sprintmail.com (Boyd Johnson) sent the following
comment about tasting notes for (Tabernash Weiss)
------------------------------------------------------------
I am writting to you in regard to your reveiw of Victory Weissbier and the
relationship you drew to Tabernash Weiss.  I have been employeed @ Tabernash
now for roughly 2 years.  I appreciate your first reveiw of our Weissbier.
Although you are incorrect on most of your information about Tabernash Weiss
in your latest reveiw of Vicotry Weissbier.  Our malt comes from Bamberg 
Germany, our hops come from Germany and so does the yeast.  We also have been
decocting our Weiss,  Dunkels, Doppelbock, O'Fest and Dunkelweiss for a little
under 2 years now.  In 1996 we won domestic beer of the year from  The Malt
Advocate for our weissbier.  I am pleaased to see an increase in production 
of weissbier across the country.  As long as it is true to style.  
It appears that it is going to be a long road to effectivily educate 
American beer drinkers what a authentic weissbier should taste like.  If 
you ever get to Denver please stop by the brewery.  It is a pretty amazing 
sight to see how we produce our beer with the equipement and the man power 
we have.   TXS Boyd.

However, the Tabernash web page indicates that the Weiss uses "Weyermann Wheat; Gambrinus Pale and Carapils" as the malt for the beer. While Gambrinus is technically imported, it is imported all the way from Canada.

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