REVIEW #41: Erdinger Pikantus (Erdinger Weissbrau)

Pours a turbid brown with off-white head. It has a pear drop and marzipan aroma. Pear drop follows through in the taste, along with estery banana and vanilla notes. Light digestive biscuit and caramel notes are also evident, thanks to a generous use of dark malt. Alcohol is plain in the finish but not overpowering. As with most wheat beers, the body is averagely grainy verging to the light side.

Erdinger is the world's largest 'weizen' (weissbier or wheat beer) brewery. It dates back to 1886 but only acquired its current name, Erdinger Weissbrau, in 1949. Pikantus is a dunkel weizenbock and as such is dark and 2-3% ABV stronger than their other weizens. If you haven't tried wheat beer, its a very refreshing style of beer, quite unlike those that rely solely on barley malts. Weizens - German wheat beers - are commonly characterised as having banana (produced by amyl acetate) and clove (4-vinyl-guaiacol) flavours produced by esters;  by-products of fermentation. Witbier, or witte, is an alternative variety of wheat beer prevalent in Holland and Belgium and often spiced with coriander and citrus peel, inter alia. Adding such flavourings to a German beer is illegal under the reinheitsgebot, or beer purity law.

• MALTS: dark barley and wheat malts

• HOPS: ?
• IBU: ?
• ABV: 7.3%`
• BOTTLE-CONDITIONED

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