Tap X Aventinus Cuvee Barrique

If there is one thing that can be said about the Germans, it is that they are creatures of habit. This is especially true when it comes to beer, where they tend to stick to the tried and true and craft their brews within the confines of strict parameters. If you don’t believe me, just go and read the Reinheitsgebot, or the German beer purity law of 1516 that will be 500 years old next year. I’ve even included it for you from an old Erlanger placard I received in the 80s.

At any rate, the Reinheitsgebot tells you what you can make your beer with, but it doesn’t say anything about what you do with it after you brew it. Hence, Schneider Tap X Aventinus Cuvee Barrique from the Schneider brewery of Kelheim, Bavaria. Wine enthusiasts will know that a barrique is a wine barrel holding almost 60 gallons, so as you might guess this is German beer aged in wine barrels. At this point it seems prudent to let the brewery speak to exactly what and how they age Schneider Tap X Aventinus Cuvee Barrique.

From the Schneider website:

In 2010 Brewmaster Hans-Peter Drexler started a new project: maturing some of his finest beers in wine barrels. He consulted a close friend, brewmaster Jérôme de Rebetez from Brasserie des Franches Montagnes in Switzerland, who grew up in a wine producing family. Together they created a truly unique doppelbock. In Aventinus Cuvée Barrique, fresh Aventinus and Aventinus Eisbock are aged in separate wine barrels for up to 8 months, and then expertly blended into a tannin-rich cuvée.

My bottle included a small placard, scanned in above, which promides more information:

The maturation in French Oak Chardonnay, American Oak Pinot Noir and German Oak barrels creates an incredible complexity of aromas. Ther percentage of each barrique variety remains our secret.

Schneider Tap X Aventinus Cuvee Barrique has an alcohol content of 9.5% by volume and I paid a hefty $17.50 for my bottle at Green’s in Atlanta. More correctly, my wife paid the price as part of my 2014 Christmas present assortment. The very thick glass 750 ML bottle says this beer can be cellared for later enjoyment, and I think my bottle already has a bit of age on it since the neck label says this is the 2013 edition.

Schneider Tap X Aventinus Cuvee Barrique pours to a muddy ruby red color with a thick rocky head formation and a wonderfully sour tart cherry pit nose. Taking a sip, the beer is as sour in the palate as it is in the nose, and that’s the first thing that hits you: dry almondy sour tart puckering cherry pits, vinous dry white grape, and then wood. You do get the oaky woody notes in this one and they almost leave splinters on the tongue. Perhaps a hint of vanilla comes through, too, from the weizen yeast, but overall I think the weizenbock character is mostly lost here.

To be sure, if you sniff and savor enough, you’ll get the tart dark fruity weizenbock notes, but I think the sourness and oak really cover them up. That doesn’t mean this is not a great beer, it is, and I can’t recommend it enough. It will still get a full 5 stars from me for the intense puckering character here alone and the complexity of flavors. Fans of sour beers will be delighted with this beer; weizenbock lovers, less so. For that reason, I’m taking off a star. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I tried this beer, I enjoyed it very much and really reveled in its puckering dryness, but I did want the weizenbock character preserved more than it was. If you enjoy sour beers as well, don’t pass this by.

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