BJ's Brewhouse - Weizenator

We’ve been really enjoying the higher-ABV limited releases from BJ’s Brewhouse, and their barleywine we recently featured was an exceptional take on the style. So for our latest special offer we put together four of our favorites from BJ’s Brewhouse Beer Club lineup, starting things off with a delicious, full-bodied weizenbock, followed up by three other standout rare releases. Their award-winning weizenbock uses a bunch of malted wheat, giving exceptional core roundness alongside the impactful banana and clove contributed by its yeast.

BJ’s Weizenator pours a deep orange amber, capped by off-white foam. Generous amounts of deep red fruits (cherries, strawberries, fruit leather…) lead the aromatics, alongside toasty pepper and clove from the yeast. There’s nicely rounded fruity sweetness throughout—hints of currant and even orange peel—alongside rich caramelization and cotton candy notes.

This offers up a nicely full-bodied impact despite only being 7.2%. There’s some welcome heat, as well as potent spice landing early from the yeast’s pepper and clove. Those phenolic elements balance nicely with chewy red fruitiness and subtle core caramelization and toffee, and that sweet but subtle banana from the hefeweizen yeast. This style brings together the lush banana and clove yeast character of German-style hefeweizen with the stronger, malt-forward impact of a bock, and we think this take from BJ’s Brewhouse works brilliantly.

Lush, layered core maltiness brings generous, velvety red fruits and caramel, alongside the lively banana, pepper, and clove interplay from the yeast. An energetic underpinning of CO2 provides plenty of lift for the overall package, and we found a whole lot to enjoy about this beer. A tasty, generous, seamlessly integrated weizenbock.

While the 7%+ ABV gives this a bit of longevity, we’d enjoy our bottles of this weizenbock on the fresher side. The caramelization will pick up more with age, and the balance will shift to the sweeter side. For pairings: red fruits, bananas, and cloves make this pretty flexible (like a hefeweizen would be), and that core maltiness has us looking to roast pork or chicken for like-minded fare. Try alongside banana bread, or vanilla- and/or caramel-focused desserts.