Grolsch Puur Weizen
Grolsch Bierbrouwerij N.V.

 

45cl botlle with traditional "beugel" cap. Brown glass. 5,1% ipa.
Traditional Weissen ingredients. Poured at around 8 degrees celcius in a straight beer glass.
Opens with a bangh, Hiugh 3,5 finger white head. Opaque light amber colour.
Smell, banana, malts with a bit of nutmeg or clove.
Taste surprises. A bit of tanginess there and a nice hoppy mildly bitter pilsener like after taste.
Lacks a bit of roundness. But there is nothing bad to this beer.
Will chill my next two a bit more, maybe gives a bit of different opinion.

Chilling it a bit more, is ruling out the tanginess of the wheat flavour and makes it more like a very drinkable beer.
I like it better than the Grolsch Pilsner, that is for sure.
A good beer, easy to drink, but not as pleasant as the german Weissens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 13 2019

 

500 mL can from the LCBO; dated Mar 9 2019 and served barely chilled. No 'Puur' on the label, but the abv matches up and the label is otherwise very similar, so I'm reasonably sure this is the right beer. Grolsch is one of those export breweries that has the (annoying) habit of using slightly different names in different markets for the same product.

Pours hazy medium golden, topped with more than two fingers of billowing, soapy white head that holds together for the better part of ten minutes. A smooth, dense cap about a quarter-inch thick sticks around, surrounded by a foamy collar; several dainty ribbons of lacing have also been left behind. It smells mainly of bready, grainy wheat sweetness and ripe banana esters, accompanied by suggestions of clove and apple skin. Typical for the style; I'd prefer a bit less focus on the banana, but what're ya gonna do.

Taste is straightforward and inoffensive - lots of bready wheat and grainy malt sweetness from start to finish, with that ripe banana ester from the nose remaining a prominent aspect of the flavour profile. Faint suggestions of lemon zest and orchard fruit are barely discernible, with a yeasty, very weakly spicy hint of clove cropping up at the finish; malt sweetness and banana linger for a few moments into the aftertaste. Light in body, with a soft, smooth mouthfeel and fairly low carbonation; mouthfeel is a bit watery. I wouldn't call this a particularly good example of its style, but it's still easy to drink and not a chore to do so.

Final Grade: 3.56, an average B grade. Grolsch Weizen is, at best, a passable mass-produced hefe that will do in a pinch: worth the tick, but not something I'd eagerly recommend to other BAs. It largely lacks the spicy, yeast-derived traits I've come to associate with hefeweizens, and the flat mouthfeel is also a problem. Virtually all of the big German names handily beat out Grolsch's interpretation, which means there's little chance of me bothering to return to this in the future.

 

 

Amazingly, the beer is the same color as the 500 ml can from which it was poured into a Hefeweizen glass. Head about two fingers and doesn’t last long. Smells fruity, with raisins and bananas. Faint hints of bread. Not much taste on the front end except for more banana. Fruit comes through in the aftertaste. Mouthfeel is creamy and full, but not overly so. Nicely balanced. This is a surprising offering from Grolsch and a very solid hefe. Definitely some synergy going on here- the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is one sessionable beer. Call me crazy, but I think I may actually prefer this to Franziskaner and Paulaner. Then again maybe I’m just tired of heavy cloudy beers and this came at the right time!

 

 

M98

 

 

33cl bottle. Hazy bright golden with a thin white head. Smells like bananas, yeast and spices. The taste follows the same notes, making this a pretty decent hefeweizen. Feels a bit watery, though.