Guest Video Review by Tom The Beer Whisperer

The Urban Chestnut Brewery of Saint Louis, Missouri specializes in German style beers, and we love them for that. German beer is a thing of beauty, and in this the year of the 500^th Anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot beer purity law, we’re drinking as many German and German-style beers as we can get out hands on. Thus imagine our excitement to try a half liter bottle of Maximilian Weizenbock Ale from Urban Chestnut.  

In German, Weizenbock means wheat goat if you want to be literal about it. Of course we know that this really means wheat bock as in a bock beer made with wheat. Wheat isn’t mentioned in the Reinheitsgebot, but it has always received a pass as a form of malt (though it’s used in its unmalted form as well).  Perhaps the most famous German Weizenbock is Schneider’s Aventinus; it’s one of the best examples I’ve ever tasted.

Urban Chestnut says of Maximillian Weizenbock Ale:

Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria, was responsible for the permittance of the use of wheat in German brewing. As such, we pay our respects to old Max with this traditional Weizenbock, a Bock Bier brewed with both wheat malt and a Weissbier yeast strain.

Maximillian Weizenbock Ale, release number 12 in the brewery’s reverence series, has an alcohol content of 6.5% by volume with 20 IBUs. That alcohol content struck me immediately as too low for the style. The aforementioned Aventinus clocks in at 8% ABV, Weinstephaner Vitus, another fine example of the style, has a 7.7% ABV. The lowest ABV I’ve found in a German Weizenbock is 7.1%. Urban Chestnut does not distribute here in Georgia, but I got a bottle from Tom the Beer Whisperer Mulvihill (see his video review above; he liked the beer more than I did).

Maximillian Weizenbock Ale pours to a dark ruby red to brownish color with a thick creamy head and a rather non-descript nose. Taking a sip, the beer has some nutty and chocolate notes up front followed by light crackery notes and a subtle hint of fruit on into a crackery finish. What I’m not getting is much banana or clove, perhaps faint traces but nowhere near what I’d get in say, Aventinus.

Overall, the beer is not robust enough for the style, and as much as I’ve raved about Urban Chestnut beers before this one leaves me hanging. It just lacks that Weizenbock oomph, and as a result, it’s not really a beer I’d buy again (if I could).

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft



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