I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to live until 2040. At least. It’s a personal goal of mine, and the next big event on my calendar. Last year was great, it was 2016 and the 500^th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot, the wonderful and historic German Beer Purity Law. 2040, though, will be another huge milestone, as the German Weihenstephan Brauerei will turn 1000 years old, the first ever brewery to hit that milestone.

In the meantime, we can of course continue to enjoy Weihenstephaner beers, and rest assured that they taste as good today from the 977 year old brewery as they will at age 1000. One thing that Weihenstephaner does not do very often is release a new beer, but they did just that in 2017 with Weihenstephaner Kristallweizenbock. This is a filtered weizenbock beer and a sister brew to their classic Vitus Weizenbock.

From the website:

For our Kristallweizenbock we were trying to combine various hop sorts o­ffering distinctive aroma notes that are pairing well with the aroma coming from our signature yeast W68 and at the same time build a bridge to the Crystal (Kristall) as the hop varieties used for 2nd and 3rd hop addition, Opal, Smaragd (Emerald) and Saphir (Sapphire) are each either crystals or crystalline minerals. ‑The hop bouquet in this brew is rounded off­ by Hallertauer Perle being used as bittering hop during the first hop addition. The result is a unique beer that we have brewed back in the middle of the last century before and which was forgotten about unfortunately within the last decades. We are proud to o­ffer this remarkable beer style to you as it reflects the liaison of tradition and our state of the art brewing.

The middle of the last century, of course, would have been anywhere from the 1940s to the 1960s, well before my beer drinking career got off the ground.

Weihenstephaner Kristallweizenbock has an alcohol content of 7.5% by volume with 21 IBUs and I paid $12.99 for a six-pack of 11.2 ounce bottles, which is high.

Weihenstephaner Kristallweizenbock pours to a pale clean golden color with a thick, sturdy creamy head formation and an intense banana bread and clove nose. Taking a sip, the beer has big bready wheat and malt up front studded with spicy clove and laced with fruity exotic banana. There’s a hint of vanilla, too, and at the last warming alcohol and an explosion of drying spice.

Don’t be fooled by the pale color: this beer explodes with flavor and is wonderful. A 5 star beer for me, though I’m going to take one back for the price. $9.99 to $10.99 seems more appropriate.

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

Try?

Rating

Home

Re-buy?