Tonight, dear reader, let us forego the normal bullshit that I peddle at the beginning of my reviews and put this out there right now: Weizen, Capital Brewery’s current summer seasonal, may very well be the best Bavarian-style weiss beer being bottled in America right now. The only weissbier I can think of that might hold a candle to it is New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat, although—despite them both being German-style wheats—they are two different beers in their approach to the style.

Capital’s offering pours non-descript enough, a hazy, pale straw underneath a huge, mousse-like head of foam. While I let the suds settle I peer down the neck of the bottle and see the dark ring of yeast at the bottom, indicating this, like a true wheat (true beer, if you ask me) should be, is bottle-conditioned.

A few nose-fulls before the sip: clove and banana, with maybe barely more ’nana than clove, if you had to pick one or the other. Some grainy malt—probably the wheat—comes out as the beer warms.

A pillowy soft mouthfeel starts the sip off, along with a pleasantly restrained carbonation, especially considering the mammoth head this pours with. Cakey-sweet malt mixes with muted clove and fruit notes. A small rush of graininess gives way to a medium finish of indistinct hop nips—far too nebulous for a dullard like me to identify—and, finally, a light malty aftertaste.

This is one nice fucking beer. While I’m not surprised it stands above its U.S. brethren, whose brewers mostly eschew the wonderful yeast characteristics of Bavarian wheats to brew the more hopped-up, less subtle American wheat style, I was downright shocked to realize Capital Weizen stacked up well against a couple of my favorite German-brewed wheats (at least the ones that aren’t super tough to get here in the Midwest): Schneider Weisse and Ayinger Bräu Weisse. Capital’s take was a little meatier, a little less one dimensional, while still being more drinkable. I love great wheat beers, and Capital Weizen is one of the best I’ve had.

Reviewed by Eddie Glick on July 24, 2012.

Agree with this review?