Hofbrauhaus Wolters - Wolters Weizen

This hefeweizen from Wolters presents a golden amber color with some haze, as we expect for the style, topped by a significant head of white foam which maintains a persistent collar after it has slowly receded. In the aroma, look for traditional yeast-driven German hefeweizen notes to jump out right away, including big banana esters and a touch of bubblegum which are balanced nicely by a classic, spicy, clove-like phenolic note. On the palate, the malt backbone offers plenty of bready, biscuity notes with the characteristic tangy edge wheat ales deliver. Hop bitterness is fairly low but, in concert with the effervescent carbonation and spiciness we expect from a good hefe, is well matched to this brew’s malty core which comes through with a slightly above average touch of sweetness for the style. Those yeasty phenols and fruity esters found upfront in the aroma remain the stars of this show on the palate, too, with well-developed clove and banana character. For pairing options, Caesar or Greek salads are natural pairings, as are sushi or fish & chips. Lobster rolls and crab cakes sound good too. Additionally, it’s hard to go wrong with traditional German dishes like schnitzel or weisswurst. Sweeter options like shortcakes and pies can go nicely, too. Prost!

The story behind Hofbrauhaus Wolters reaches as far back as 1627, when Zacharias Boiling received approval to begin brewing and selling beer in Brunswick, Germany. In 1734, Heinrich Levin Wolters came into control of the brewery, lending his name to the operation and starting a dynasty that would last through six generations of Wolters family brewers. The Wolters brewery has been a landmark in the city for hundreds of years, with the Duke of Brunswick even selecting Wolters as the official beer supplier to his court (and in fact, the brewery adopted the Dukedom of Brunswick’s coat-of-arms as their logo, which you can see on their labels to this day).

Like so many other breweries across Europe, Wolters endured an extremely difficult and dark time during World War II. Large portions of the city of Brunswick were wiped out by Allied bombing raids, and the brewery suffered extensive damage. Fortunately for the brewery and all the residents of the city, after the war Brunswick was located within West Germany. While many breweries in East Germany languished under communist government control, Wolters managed to not only resume operations, but to grow their business and modernize their brewing operations significantly. The brewery was reconstructed in 1947, and a large renovation and modernization effort in 1976 transformed Wolters into a world-class brewing facility. In 2003 Wolters was acquired by brewing conglomerate InBev, but the marriage didn’t last long. By 2006 Wolters had split from InBev, re-emerging as a private brewery in control of its own fate once again.

As a long-established regional brewery and sponsor of local beer festivals, Wolters has traditionally focused their marketing efforts and growth targets in the greater Lower Saxony region in an approximately 50 mile radius from Brunswick. However, in recent years they’ve begun exporting their beers (essentially taking on their former InBev owners, who had effectively shut down Wolters’ previous export business in favor of their big international brands). Within just the first two years they established export markets in diverse countries around the world including the U.S., China, Lithuania, Ireland, Romania, and Mexico. Their success is testament to the quality of traditional German beer, and proves there’s a thirsty public out there that demands the good stuff. Prost!