Privatbrauerei Bischoff - Falkensteiner Ur-Weisse

If you like exploring the world of German and/or Czech beers, you’ve probably seen "Ur" in many of their names. Ur is a German prefix that can mean "first," "prime," or "original," but it’s also sometimes used loosely to mean “older” or “traditional”. Certainly, Falkensteiner Ur-Weisse is not the original or first German hefeweizen, but it is brewed to emulate the traditional, older styles of hefeweizens brewed in Bavaria.

Bischoff’s Falkensteiner Ur-Weisse pours a super hazy, golden straw color with a pillowy white head. The aromatics on this brew are quite big and start filling the room with an unmistakable hefeweizen character as soon as the first drops hit the glass. Look for big clove notes atop a very pleasant sweet fruitiness including light banana-like esters, plus a notable wheat “twang” accompanied by a lightly chalky, earthy, yeast aroma. All of the aromas follow through on the palate, where the beer opens with a lightly sweet and quite bold wheat backbone with mild cracker-like notes. The cloves are apparent here again, along with lightly spicy, floral, hop notes. A moderate fruitiness builds on the midpalate, accompanied by a very subdued bitterness and an excellent earthy yeast flavor that carries through and lingers with wheat notes and a touch of lemon in the persistent finish. The panel loved both the body of this hefeweizen, which really stands out as being particularly lush and creamy for the style, as well as the superb balance among all of its flavors. We found all of the parts working in harmony in this perfect summertime brew. Try it with a grilled chicken salad with mandarin oranges, or fish tacos with mango salsa.

Note: many people reflexively add a lemon wedge to their hefeweizens. Please resist the temptation, at least until you've had at least one of these without the fruit and can sample the true flavor—there's plenty of it to stand on its own. Plus, we're pretty sure that when this beer took home the 2006 DLG Tasting Center's Gold Prize, it was served sans lemon.

The craft brewing movement in the U.S. is still very much in its youth. Most of the craft breweries here are under 25 years of age, with only a handful beyond that mark. Germany, where the brewing culture goes back hundreds of years, stands in sharp contrast. In fact, our featured international brewery is 144 years old, and that’s actually not considered particularly old in Germany where many breweries have been in operation for several hundred years. Regardless, they’ve certainly had the time to get the whole brewing thing down pretty darn well. Privatbrauerei Bischoff was founded in a part of southwestern Germany known as Nordpfalz, in an area commonly referred to as the Palatinate (“Pfalz” is German for Palatinate). The region features the imposing Donnersberg (“Thunder Mountain”) and the Palatinate Forest, which, when taken together with the contiguous forest of the Vosges area of France, makes up one of Europe’s largest wooded areas. The Bischoff Brewery is located in the town of Winnweiler, in a part of the Palatinate that has a considerably cooler climate than the area to the north; while vineyards and wineries are dotted all along the Deutsche Weinstrasse (German Wine Route) to the north, the area around Winnweiler is well known for its barley farms, traditional maltsters, and excellent beers. The region is blessed with exceptional natural resources, including the crystal-clear spring water that Bischoff uses in all of its beers. This superb water, along with locally-farmed barley, regionally-sourced hops, and yeast sourced from Weihenstephan, has been used for five generations of brewers in the Bischoff family. It was on December 7th, 1866, when the region was still a part of Bavaria, that Christian Bischoff introduced the first beers from the brewery. 144 years later, Bischoff is the only brewery in Nordpfalz to have remained continuously owned by the same family since its founding. While the brewery began most humbly in a small barn that was converted into a brewery, the family has continuously updated the brewing equipment and added new beers to Bischoff’s lineup. In 2001, Drs. Erik and Sven Bischoff, Christian’s great-great-grandsons, joined the brewery team. Privatbrauerei Bischoff celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2006. In that year, the brewery was awarded an impressive array of hardware from Germany’s independent food and drinks testing association, the esteemed DLG Test Center, including 2 Gold and 3 Silver Medals. What a great birthday present! In the judging, both new and older samples of each beer are sampled by a panel of ten experts who judge the purity of flavor, fullness of body, freshness, and taste stability during storage. However, not only are the beers judged on their flavor as in formal beer competitions, they’re also evaluated by rigorous laboratory analysis. Yep, the Germans take their beer VERY seriously… It’s too bad we can’t send you all 17 beers in Bischoff’s current line up, but we did select a couple of our favourites which we hope you enjoy as much as we do. Prost!!