Nebraska Brewing Company - EOS Hefeweizen

EOS pours a golden straw color that’s very cloudy and topped with a voluminous and lasting head of bright foam – just as we would expect for a Bavarian-style weissbier. The aroma is also on point, offering up tons of archetypal weissbier aromas including bold clove-like phenols and banana-like fruit esters. On the palate, look for those banana notes to really open up in concert with a touch of bubblegum, while those herbal phenolics meld with a touch of spicy-floral hops to give us a bit of contrast. Hop bitterness here is mild, but is in perfect balance with the very mild hint of sweetness delivered by the bready, wheaty malt core. We’re always excited to come across a true Bavarian-style wheat beer brewed in America, and EOS is among the best we’ve come across in a good while. Over 20 medals from U.S. and international competitions are testament to this brew’s impressive character. For pairing options, the brewery recommends seafood appetizers, salmon, salads, and goat cheese, to which we’d add grilled German sausages, especially weisswurst, and pork schnitzel. Banana bread should match up nicely, as well. Prost!

Paul Kavulak began homebrewing around 1992, and it became a serious hobby which would ultimately lead to the founding of Nebraska Brewing Company many years later. The pivotal moment occurred in 2005 when Paul, frustrated and disappointed in the outcome of one of his recipes, threw a large bag of Cascade hops into the fermenter and walked away. When he calmly came to clean up his mess a couple weeks later, he discovered the beer had transformed into exactly what he had been trying to achieve. The idea of starting a brewpub with this “Cardinal Pale Ale” as its flagship began to take root.

After realizing that he would never achieve the dream of opening the brewpub if he couldn’t make enough time for it, Paul convinced his supportive wife, Kim, to go all-in. He quit his job, and the pair focused completely on bringing Nebraska Brewing Company to life. A used brewing system was located and purchased from Sasebo, Japan, and in November of 2007 the brewpub opened its doors. Unfortunately, this was right as the U.S. housing bubble burst, but they would weather the recession that soon followed through a combination of careful business decisions and great beer, eventually promoting talented assistant brewer Tyson Arp to his current position as Nebraska’s Overlord of Brewing. A bold decision was made to invest heavily in their fledgling barrel-aged beers – a decision which has proved very smart indeed, as members of our Rare Beer Club who have previously enjoyed Nebraska’s barrel-aged beers, including the excellent Chardonnay barrel-aged Belgian-style strong ale, Mélange à Trois, can attest.

In 2014, a second brewing location was opened not far from the first, allowing the expansion of both their canned beer business as well as their barrel-aged program. For more info on this truly superb brewery, visit them at nebraskabrewingco.com.