Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

To be honest, there is FAR too much style variation within each of those categories to answer this question in any meaningful way.

 

Fair enough, and that's actually apropros of my singular example -- I was surprised at the potent chocolate flavor of the HB Dunkel, while I thought the Korbinian less forward in that regard. So, the notion that it just really depends makes sense in that scenario.

 

A short story of some Bavarian beer enjoyment over the past weekend. I took my lovely bride to lunch at a local tavern she'd never been (she's planning a get-together with some friends, one of whom is related to the owner of this tavern, so she wanted to check it out).

Perusing the beer list I noted that they had Hofbräu Dunkelweizen on tap (harkening back to discussions about seeing Wizens on tap). I don't know, or just plain don't remember, if I'd ever had HB Dunkelweizen before so I decided to "splurge."

From the corner of my eye I caught the waitress returning from the bar... carrying a .5l Maß. I immediately thought they may have printed "Weizen" on the menu by mistake and they were actually serving HB Dunkel, but nope. They sure enough were pouring up the Dunkelweizen in .5l dimpled steins!

To the dreaded thought of wrong glassware -- the beer tasted pretty good. Maybe a little cold at first, but I think the HB logo shield helped soften the atrocity of the wrong vessel.

 

I don't know, hombre -- if a dimpled stein is good enough for these guys and their weissbier, it's good enough for me

 

I dunno, I get the distinct feeling those shots were set up by the N. American marketing team!

And you didn't see the look on the Ober's face at the HB München when I asked if I could have a Weizen in a Maß -- it's one of those near eye-rolls, swallow the exasperation expressions I'll never forget.

 

I'm a little surprised by their reaction. You can get a mass of Weizen at the Loewenbraeukeller. No request necessary, it's on their menu.

The masskrug didn't ruin my enjoyment too much.

 

I probably started some evil, tradition-killing trend back in the early '90s -- "Hey, Amis are asking for Weizen in a Maß -- we need to make it available!"

Honestly, on all my trips over I never saw Weizen served in a Maß... other than the one I specifically requested. Was the "Maß" at Lowenbraukeller a typical dimpled Maß? Or a full liter Weizen glass? Those I've seen!

 

It was in the dimpled mug. No funny looks from anyone either. I don't think I was the only person drinking weissbier from a masskrug either.

 

Some dude (and his girlfriend) back in summer of 1990 drinking a Mass of Weizen for breakfast at the Chinesischer Turm Biergarten

 

I've had weissbier from dimpled mugs (1L or 1/2L) on a few occasions. While at least a little uncommon, I don't think it's looked down upon or completely weird either.

 

Tell that to the Ober I had at the HB!

Seriously, he gave me the sort of look you get in Chicago when you ask for ketchup on a hotdog!

 

I've been to all of the spots mentioned so far -- even had a Weizen at one or 2 of them -- never seen a Maß. And once again I'll point out that the 3 people who can actually say they had Weizen am Maß? Amis. ('course, if the "girlfriend" is the same woman who became your wife, she gets dispensation for not being Bavarian -- )

*BTW -- A Weizen has to be hell to pour into a Maß!

**Also BTW -- you beat me by probably 2 or 3 months!

 

Personally, I've never seen hefeweizen served in Maßkrug, there may have been times I wasn't paying attention too. Maybe a 0.5 tall Willibecher, but never a Maß. Seems sort of sacrilegious.

 

I only saw beers being served in 1L Maßkrugs at the Chinese Garten a month ago. I didn't see any Weizens at the time.

 

The times I've seen it, the staff have said something along the lines of "Are you sure? Weissbier in a Maß? Okay."
That's been essentially what I've heard when people have ordered it in English. Even with native speakers, it seems to be a similar reaction, although I have no real idea what was actually said. Some of the ones you see in the wild are probably Russ'ns as well.

 

I was at the Chinesischer Turm three years ago now and saw beers being served in 1L and .5L sizes. I distinctly remember getting a .5L because it was like 2 in the afternoon and I was still planning on hitting up the Schneider Weisse brewpub and then ended up getting a Maß in the evening somewhere in the middle of downtown later.

Like others, I didn't see any weißbiere in them.

 

On the weißbier note- I just re-reviewed Schneider Weisse's Mein Hopfenweiße, which I found to be rather disagreeable this time around. Unlike a lot of US 'hoppy wheat beers', which I find are really just IPAs with a pinch of wheat thrown in to call it something different, this one was truly a hefeweizen with a handful of hops thrown in to the bottle. If there are two styles that don't seem to mix well, its the yeasty, subtle hefeweizen and the in-your-face IPA.

While not altogether bad or unpleasant, it is something I'm not searching out again. At least a scored a new bottle cap from it.

 

Hopfenweisse grew on me. The very first one (with the Brooklyn label) was very odd to me and reminded me a little of the Belgian IPAs that I usually detest. The last two times I've had it have been much more appealing. I think some of it might relate to it being a HUGE change of pace in Munich, but I had a good one in Denver recently too. Either they tweaked it or my palate changed to appreciate it more. I still detest most Belgian IPAs, though.

 

aaand now I want to drink some beer.

 

Let's jump-start the Germany forum!

So I had an SN Summerfest then grabbed my last HB Dunkel. If you want to try an experiment, drink a light, dry, bitter brew first -- then try a good Dunkel. Man -- the sweet, bready, toasty malts really stand out in contrast to the grainy, dry malts and bitter hops. Diversity is the backbone of beer!