Franziskaner - the Daddy of weissbier!!

joker77

Have started drinking this more and more since being over in Germany to see my sister who lives over there, the gold label is the Wheat-beer (weissbier), which in my humble opinion is simply the best weissbier around.

Pricey over here though which is a pity (2.50 in most off-licenses for the half-litre bottle).

Sarky

It's not bad, certainly. A very refreshing taste and texture to it, as if it's almost wetter than water itself. Fabulous on a warm day.

I find the Dunkel type to be quite an acquired taste, although it's no less nicer once you get used to it.

Winning Hand

I find franziskaner to be overrated to be honest, much like warsteiner. I do enjoy it from time to time but I prefer Erdinger if they are sitting side by side in the fridge

Sarky

Do you ever find Erdinger to be a bit too fizzy sometimes?

Karl Hungus

Much prefer Franziskaner to Erdinger myself, there's just something about Erdinger that just doesn't sit well with me.

RE*AC*TOR

Franziskaner is the boss tbh. Nice pub in waterford called Downes serves it and Spaten. I only ever drink Franziskaner. Lovely taste - might i be right in saying there's a hint of banana to it? (not implying that they put banana into it, merely there's a banana-like quality to it).

Sleipnir

Verboden Vrucht is my No. 1 Choice (although it's not a weissbier)
Lovely nutty flavour....yum, yum.

RedorDead

What offys sell the stuff in dublin? Wouldnt mind sampling it.

technobob

RedorDead wrote:

What offys sell the stuff in dublin? Wouldnt mind sampling it.

whelans off licence(or at least the one next to it) has a massive selection of beers.
most supermarkets stock these beers too.
well iv seen them in superquinn and tesco.

noby

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

Franziskaner is the boss tbh. Nice pub in waterford called Downes serves it and Spaten. I only ever drink Franziskaner. Lovely taste - might i be right in saying there's a hint of banana to it? (not implying that they put banana into it, merely there's a banana-like quality to it).

You're right. Banana and cloves are flavours common to weissbiers. AFAIK, that's coming from the yeast.

My preference would be Franziskainer over Erdinger. Schneider is nice too. I've also had Paulaner, another good one.

Erdinger is the only one I've seen on draft in Ireland, and is stronger than the bottled version, so I've been told.

joker77

I like the Erdinger Crystal stuff, with the silver label, but as for the weissbier:

Karl Hungus wrote:

there's just something about Erdinger that just doesn't sit well with me.

I agree, not sure what it is, just doesn't go down as well!

Sleepy

Franziskaner over Erdinger any day of the week. It's a 'fuller' flavoured beer for want of a bet description... that and the quality of the Erdinger taps can differentiate quite wildly, a lot of pubs do seem to put the gas too high.

RE*AC*TOR

noby wrote:

You're right. Banana and cloves are flavours common to weissbiers. AFAIK, that's coming from the yeast.

My preference would be Franziskainer over Erdinger. Schneider is nice too. I've also had Paulaner, another good one.

Erdinger is the only one I've seen on draft in Ireland, and is stronger than the bottled version, so I've been told.

I'd rank them:

1. Franziskaner
2. Schenider
3. Erdinger
4. Paulaner

Have to say - not a big Paulaner fan. It lacks something. It has neither the flavour of Franziskaner, nor the robustness of Erdinger.

Blub2k4

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

Franziskaner is the boss tbh. Nice pub in waterford called Downes serves it and Spaten. I only ever drink Franziskaner. Lovely taste - might i be right in saying there's a hint of banana to it? (not implying that they put banana into it, merely there's a banana-like quality to it).

On really hot days we used throw a dash of banana pulp into the weiss bier to make it more palatable, this is something I was shown by the Germans and didn't make up myself.

noby

Banana pulp? never heard of that one. Lemon I've seen used alright

Karl Hungus

Often had a slice of lemon with my Hoegaarden, but banana pulp? That just seems odd.

And yeah, Schneider is quite nice also, but I think my preference would still be towards Franziskaner for the German beers. I'm sure there's better out there, but I've not had it yet.

po0k

Maisel's Weisse

RE*AC*TOR

SyxPak wrote:

Maisel's Weisse

Can't believe i forgot that one. That is truely excellent - at least on par with Schneider.

Blub2k4

noby wrote:

Banana pulp? never heard of that one. Lemon I've seen used alright

lemon you will only have seen in a Krystall weizen (in Germany in any case),I was referring to Hefe (cloudy, hefe=yeast), and even possibly a sprinkling of dried rice, this keeps a head on the krystall as the rice provides a greater surface area for the beeds of co2 to form, the lemon is for flavour.
Banana pulp is effectively juice, they go very well together.

I worked for a few years as a barman in Germany.

Make sure to roll the hefe bottle on its side with a little liquid still left in it to shift all the yeast off the bottom of the bottle.

Blub2k4

opps double post

<edit>removed double posting.

RE*AC*TOR

The lemon is generally used with Biére Blanche in Belgium/Holland. Hoeggarden would fit into this category. They are cloudy beers - but not as wheaty as the german erdinger/franziskaner/etc.

From wikipedia (about White Beer / Biére Blanche):

" It is a descendant from those Medieval beers which were not brewed with hops, but instead flavoured and preserved with a blend of spices and other plants referred to as gruut. It therefore still uses gruut, although nowadays the gruut consists mainly of coriander, orange and hops."

Dutchboy

Got a great present from the parents coming back from Belgium yesterday!
A Belgian beer gift set, consisting of:
- Two bottles of Original Hoegaarden 5%
- 1 bottle of Leffe original 6.6%
-1 bottle of leffe Braun bier 6.5%
and a bottle of Grand Cru Hoegaarden! 8.9%

Tried a bottle of Duuvel yesterday, the stuff is rocket fuel!
Heavy aftertaste on it though!

Blub2k4

I may be a bit of a heretic, but I dont rate Belgian beers compared to the Germans.
I find Duvel revolting, as I do hoegaarden, Pavels Kwak...bleeurgh. I did have an interesting one recently but it was a novelty, called Fruli, strawberry beer, it was a hot day and it was interesting, not something I would fill up on.
I'm sure I need to try more of them, but the flagships of belgian beers are not to my taste.
The Germans do a much lighter weizen, the Belgs I find mostly sickly and cloying.

IrishMike

Franziskaner is like drinking a bottle of beer than someone slipped a cup of yeast into
bloody awful stuff if u ask me.

RE*AC*TOR

Blub2k4 wrote:

I may be a bit of a heretic, but I dont rate Belgian beers compared to the Germans.
I find Duvel revolting, as I do hoegaarden, Pavels Kwak...bleeurgh. I did have an interesting one recently but it was a novelty, called Fruli, strawberry beer, it was a hot day and it was interesting, not something I would fill up on.
I'm sure I need to try more of them, but the flagships of belgian beers are not to my taste.
The Germans do a much lighter weizen, the Belgs I find mostly sickly and cloying.

Try Watou Wit - a lot of off-licences have it - probably more to your liking.

But I completely disagree with you - Belgian beer is unrivalled in taste and variety. German beer can be great, and maybe easier to drink in large volumes, but there are great Belgian beers like Westmalle Tripple, Hoegaarden Verboden Frucht (sic), Barbar and many, many other. Some of the lambic beers are well worth a try as well.

I'd put it like this - in Germany beer is a science, in Belgium its a religion.

noby

RE. Belgian v German beers

It can be like comparing apples and oranges. With German beer I like the wheat beers, lagers, okto's etc. For Belgian it's stronger ales etc. They both have their place.

Blub2k4

I think you both may be right, I admitted to not having tried a lot of Belgian beers.
As noby says the Belgians do stronger ales, there are very few strong beers that I like, Aventinus Dunkel Starkbier being an exception at 9%ish.
In any case personal taste is the Germans, although I will probably give a few more a try when I start drinking again in a month or so. I think I should possibly go to the offie and buy a selection of Belgians I haven't tried.

All rave about Hoegaarden Grand Cru, I tried it when Belgo was still open and was not impressed at all.
You say tomaaato I say tomato

noby

Blub2k4 wrote:

You say tomaaato I say tomato

Something like that. It's not about which country is the best, it's about being able to cherry-pick the best they both have to offer.

jester77

Well it's really down to an individuals palate and taste preference. Otherwise we would all be drinking the same few beers!!

... but then again it doesn't explain why so many people drink the pish lager serverd in alot of Irish bars

Blub2k4

jester77 wrote:

Well it's really down to an individuals palate and taste preference. Otherwise we would all be drinking the same few beers!!

... but then again it doesn't explain why so many people drink the pish lager serverd in alot of Irish bars

lol I remember when I started drinking in Ireland on tap you had Guinness, Harp and Smithwicks in your average bar, then along came furstenburg and heineken and a few others. There was very little choice, I think the present selection has to do with the amount of foreigners here and our european integration. You would be hard pushed to find a bottle of beer in Germany for 1.50 and that would be a half litre, so they can send their Warsteiner 333mls here and get a euro for them and almost double their money.

jester77

Living in Germany myself now and no chance of finding a beer in a bar for €1.50, well not in the cities anyway. €2.00 is about as good as I've seen. Love this country... drive to the trinkmarkt on Saturday, bring back the empties, get about €4 or €5 back, stock up with a crate of top quality bier for €12-€15 for the following. Just finished a crate of Flensburg pils this week... hmm, what to get for next week

Blub2k4

I was really referring to the getraenkemarkt, is it gone so bad there now? How much for a case of Warsteiner? You must be up North if you are drinking Flens, have you tried the other Flensburger bier called Boelkstoff from the cartoon Werner? koemmt gut du, koemmt echt gut du
Case of 24 flens for 12 is what I meant, 50 cent a bottle. It must still be the case then that you would be hard pushed to find a bottle of beer for €1.50....no?

joker77

jester77 wrote:

Living in Germany myself now and no chance of finding a beer in a bar for €1.50, well not in the cities anyway. €2.00 is about as good as I've seen. Love this country... drive to the trinkmarkt on Saturday, bring back the empties, get about €4 or €5 back, stock up with a crate of top quality bier for €12-€15 for the following. Just finished a crate of Flensburg pils this week... hmm, what to get for next week

Living the dream man, living the dream....

I couldn't get over it when I was over there to visit my sister - €5 for 12x330ml bottles of Warsteiner - and they'd give you money back for the empty bottles! The Happiest of Happy Days!

jester77

Blub2k4 wrote:

I was really referring to the getraenkemarkt, is it gone so bad there now? How much for a case of Warsteiner? You must be up North if you are drinking Flens, have you tried the other Flensburger bier called Boelkstoff from the cartoon Werner? koemmt gut du, koemmt echt gut du
Case of 24 flens for 12 is what I meant, 50 cent a bottle. It must still be the case then that you would be hard pushed to find a bottle of beer for €1.50....no?

Yeah, living in Hamburg... but I could also pick up a crate of Flens when I was living in Frankfurt!
Haven't tried the Boelkstoff... one to put on the list
Was going to buy a big selection of different biers and try them out but I decided that it's probably better to slowly work though the massive selection! You'd never pay €1.50 for a 500ml bottle of bier, a case of 500ml Warsteiner was around €12 last year, myself and a mate went on a mad 6 month session of it at one stage!!
Must look closer at prices, I'm brutal for picking things up and handing over money without looking at what it costs!

****Edit*****
Just picked up 6x330 bottles of Straropramen in the local supermarket on the way home, 3.69 + 0.48 for pfand.