All About the Beer
On Monday April 14th, Harry’s Wine & Liquor Market and Fairfield Cheese Shop hosted a rare event with Georg Schneider VI and Susi Hecht of Schneider Weisse in Kelhiem, Germany. Fairfield Cheese closed their store early to host the event, so at 7pm, 22 eager “students” filled around a decorated table at Fairfield Cheese ready to taste Schneider beers. It has been over 8 years since Georg Schneider VI has been in the US so this event was a rare opportunity.
The presenters for the evening included Georg Schneider VI (6th generation and current owner of Schneider Weisse), Susi Hecht (export manager of Schneider Weisse) and the moderator for the evening Renzo Kian-Kubota (beer manager at Harry’s). The event started with Georg giving a history of the company. Schneider Weisse was founded by Georg Schneider VI great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather Georg Schneider I in 1872. The Schneider family has been brewing Bavarian Style Wheat Beer since 1872 and now Georg runs the family business. Susi Hecht went on to let group know that the recipe for Schneider Weisse Original has not changed since 1872 and that is still the same recipe that they use today.
Now onto the tasting, as Georg and Susi had a lot of ground to cover, 8 beers and 1 beer spirit along with cheese paired for it all in an hour and a half. Schneider Original of course is the first beer we tasted, the flagship of the brewery and this beer is as traditional as you get with Bavarian wheat beer. This beer was first brewed in 1872 when Georg Schneider I bought the right to brew wheat beer from King Ludwig II (before then Bavarian Wheat beer was only brewed by Bavarian royalty), and the recipe has not changed! Once the beer is poured, we were immediately met with the scent of ripe bananas, clove, and nutmeg. Susi Hecht points out that all Schneider beers are unfiltered and un-pasteurized and also that Schneider follows the rules of the Reinheitsgebot also known as the German Purity Law (where no spices are used). Thus the intense banana and clove flavor comes from the Schneider yeast and the yeast alone. The Schneider yeast is of course very guarded at the brewery and she also mentions that each batch uses a new Schneider yeast and that they do not re-use the yeast (which was something completely new to me), we learn something new every day.
The second beer of the night was Organic Wiesen Edel Weisse (certified organic by the USDA). The recipe for this beer dates back to 1916 but it was revived by Georg Schneider IV in 1999. The Schneider Weisse brewery was originally located in Munich, Germany. Only breweries located in Munich are allowed to participate in the annual Oktoberfest celebration. This beer was originally the Schneider Family’s Oktoberfest beer, but since the Schneider brewery has now moved 80km north to Kelheim they are no longer allowed to brew a beer that is called Oktoberfest so they call it Wiesen Edel Weisse. Edel is German for Special so this is what they consider a “Special Beer for the Festivals”.
When they renamed the beer they also changed the recipe slightly. Georg Schneider IV developed a friendship with Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery and on one of his trips to the US he tasted a beer at Brooklyn Brewery that he fell in love with. When he asked Garret Oliver what hops he used in the beer Garrett said Cascade (grown in the US). Georg Schneider IV decided to import Cascade hops from the US to Germany for the new version of Wiesen Edel Weisse. Shipping Cascade hops from the US to Germany created much noise because the brewery in the famous Hallertau hop region of Germany, so the thought of importing hops was seen as crazy. The result of the Cascade hop does provide a unique hop aroma with a nice citrus and spicy note that is balanced by the malty banana and clove aromas. Refreshing and full-bodied at the same time. People in the class were really excited for this beer.
It should be noted that Schneider Weisse does have a Schneider Beer Hall in Downtown Munich on the old cobblestone street that serves both food and all their beers for those who are ever in Munich and want to see some of the Schneider history. This building has been in the Schneider family for generations and Georg Schneider VI lives above the restaurant when he is in Munich.
Now onto Schneider Brooklyner Hopfen Weisse which was created as a result of a close friendship between Garrett Oliver and the Schneider family. Due to the friendship they decided to come up with a recipe together, thus the beer is called Schneider Brooklyner. Brooklyn Brewery made their version of this beer (currently discontinued) called Brooklyner Schneider. The recipe was developed in conjunction by Schneider’s brew master Hans Peter Drexler and Garrett Oliver in 2008. The two versions will of course taste different because the Schneider version uses the Schneider house yeast, which gives the beer such an intense banana and clove feel. This beer is the hoppiest beer in the Schneider line as it uses a combination of Hallertauer Tradition and Saphir hops.
Next up is Schneider Nelson Sauvin. This was first brewed in 2011 when the ABT cafes in the Netherlands asked Schneider Weisse to brew a special beer for their annual celebration. Schneider Weisse came up with the “Nelson Sauvin”, using the New Zealand Nelson Sauvin hops. This hop gives the beer its fruity wine-like aroma. Along with the Schneider yeast, they use a second yeast from Belgium for bottle conditioning.
Susi Hecht took a moment to show the class the label and explain that Georg Schneider VI along with running the Schneider family business is also an artist. He created the label of Schneider Weisse Nelson Sauvin (along with all the new labels). This label bridges the gap between beer and wine by depicting a hop bine with colorful hop cones under a blue and white sky (symbol of Bavaria).
Onto the newest beer in the Schneider portfolio, Schneider Porter Weisse. Georg starts by telling the class that during a trip to the UK he fell in love with the English Porter and decided to incorporate some of those elements into a Schneider Weisse beer. The result is a dark Schneider with both the banana and clove flavors of a wheat beer while having a dry cocoa and malt characteristics one would expect from an English Porter all while maintaining a lightness in the mouth feel.
We then arrived at Aventinus. Aventinus is a wheat doppelbock and was made by Georg Schneider VI great grandmother in 1907. Schneider wanted to name the beer Aventinus for the street the brewery used to be on in Munich, but wheat doppelbocks were traditionally named for saints, so they had to do a lot of digging in history books to find a saint named Aventinus, which surprisingly they did. A dark ruby colored liquid with a creamy fine head and strong notes of ripe bananas, raisins and plums meet licorice and roasty aromas. Full-bodied and warming, with a well-balanced and smooth finish. This is the oldest wheat doppelbock of Bavaria and is uniquely different. Easily one of the favorites of the class.
From there we move to the last beer, the Aventinus Eisbock. Aventinus Eisbock is a class of its own. Legend has it that Aventinus barrels froze during transport in cold winter days. Brewers tasted the liquid that had remained unfrozen and were most delighted. As the water freezes before the alcohol, what remained is a concentrated Aventinus. Concentrated in aroma and in alcohol. This is what I consider super duper Aventinus, at 12% ABV, it is definitely a beer for sipping.
At the conclusion of the tasting, Georg and Susi surprised the class with an Aventinus Spirit aged in M. Couvreur Whiskey barrels. This definitely brought some confusion to the class as the concept of a “beer spirit” might be slightly foreign. Spirits in general are distilled from a grain/malt-based beverage, thus to distilled something from a beer which is a grain/malt beverage is not so crazy. So the Aventinus Spirit (Edelster Aventinus) is distilled from Aventinus. The spirit in its distilled form maintains its beautiful banana and dark strawberry nose combined with black peppery hop spice and hints of basil and clove. Its smooth, sticky mouth feel compliments the fruity malt sweetness (strawberry/pear/banana becoming vanilla) in perfect balance with the acidity and black-pepper bitterness. The version everyone tasted was aged in M. Couvreur Whiskey barrels (a whiskey producer from France) for 36 months. The class was pleasantly surprised at how much the spirit reminded them of Aventinus. Some of the folks in the class who do not enjoy spirits normally even found this item very exciting to drink.
After tasting through 9 products the class came to a conclusion. Part 2 of this article will focus mainly on the cheese pairing used in this class with some mind blowing combinations. Stay tuned…