Beer of the Week - Cavalier Weizen

Hefeweizen - 5%

I was first acquainted with this beer at Victorian Microbrewery Awards at Fed Square in Melbourne earlier this year and I enjoyed it so much I used three of my twenty sample tokens just on refills of this pleasing Hefeweizen.  It looks like I wasn’t the only one to enjoy it as the beer was voted both the People’s Choice and Best Wheat Beer at the event.  I left Fed Square with this fair Fraulein at top of my hit list.

Sadly this beer turned out to be harder to find than Osama, the search culminating in an ill advised invasion (Blackhearts & Sparrows in St Kilda) under false pretexts (“I’ll only be a second baby, just buying bottle of wine for my uncle’s birthday...”).  Having just polished the bottle off I can happily say it lives up to the memory, the guys at Cavalier have crafted a Hefeweizen of which Georg Schneider himself would approve.

The ample head is such a pure white, it would give the irritating twat from the Napisan ads an inferiority complex, this glorious, nay angelic, head crowns a almost startlingly clear golden body and leaves iceberg-like chunks of lace which never truly dissipate.  A nice dusting of yeast rests like silt upon the bottom of the glass.

 

The nose is really sweet with candied banana to the fore with a little vanilla and a freshly cut grass character.

The flavour is a decent balance between sweetness and tartness with nice bubblegum notes backed by bready characteristics and finishing with a bit of a zesty, lemony zing.  The tartness comes off a little abrasive but I don’t mind, it gives this hefe some balls, which is a good thing as many attempts at this style come off a bit weak, tending to be watery and lacking in assertive flavour.

The beer has a creamy mouthfeel, with medium body and carbonation, it goes down really easily.  Hefeweizens are at their best over a summer’s lunch and just the taste of this beer after so many months of Stouts and Porters has me anticipating the warm days to come.  

Cavalier itself is a very new brewery having only begun operations earlier this year in Melbourne, they are really small-scale at the present, batch numbers are handwritten on the bottles, so I’m not sure if any of their wares are available outside the state yet.  They also offer a Pale Ale which is brewed with Nelson Sauvin Hops and an American Brown Ale.  This is brewery I’m going to be watching with great interest...