Ebel's Weiss, Two Brothers Brewing Company

It's funny how something that's been around for a very long time can become famous for tangentially related activities.  The most famous example of this is the swastika, which had for thousands of years served as an evocation of auspiciousness before being catapulted into the history books as a symbol of fascism.  Another example comes to us from Austria via Rodgers and Hammerstein.  That would be Edelweiss.  This furry little flower that grows at moderately high altitudes in limey soil became famous by the smooth, baritone voice of Christopher Plummer in the movie adaptation of The Sound of Music.  The flower is a persnickety plant, requiring just the right growing conditions before agreeing to bloom.  Rodgers and Hammerstein made sure their song lived up to the flower's name by taking a hard line on copyright infringement.  In the 1970s it became common for some churches to use the Edelweiss tune with different lyrics as a benediction.  Rodgers made it clear that using the tune with different lyrics would result in legal action and his estate continues to uphold this wish.  Regardless of how utterly ridiculous it sounds that someone would sue a church for using the melody to sing "May the Lord, Mighty God, Bless and keep you forever," it's the law.  So you won't be hearing any rendition of Edelweiss other than how it appears in the musical until 2054.  Unless of course Disney steps in again to get copyright protection extended.

Anyway, today's beer keys into this fame with its name, Ebel's Weiss, and comes to us from Two Brothers Brewing Company.  The monicker is a pun between edelweiss and the surname of the brothers, Ebel.  The "weiss" doubles in the pun to indicate the style, weißbier, or weizen, as it is know outside of its home region.

The color and head are just right for a hefeweizen.  I was a little nervous because I had seen it poured before with only about a finger of head, so I used the upside-down pour instead of the pour, swirl and top off method.  I still haven't explained those...  Um...  I'll post on pouring techniques eventually.  I promise. The beer is unfiltered, as is made clear by the sediment at the bottom of the bottle, so it truly is a hefeweizen.

Do ya see it?

The aroma holds cloves, bananas, a touch of citrus, blah, blah, blah.  Everything about this beer is what you would expect.  In Ebel's Weiss the brothers have produced a beer I could see being described as average or run-of-the-mill, that is, by someone living in Southern Germany.  I image Two Brothers starting out like Founders, brewing beer to just get by.  But "getting by" for former ex-patriots (ex-ex-patriots?) is very different than "getting by" for plain old American homebrewers.  What opened my eyes to truly good beer was time spent in Bavaria and Ebel's Weiss tastes like it would fit right in.  This is probably why it has garnered a reputation for being a bit of a "gateway" beer, leading drinkers away from the big breweries.  It's mundane in a universe where mundane means superb.  If it weren't for the fact that I've had a number of good wheat beers already, I would state here that I'm not a wheat beer guy but I still like this brew.  (But really, deep down, I'm not a wheat beer guy but I still like this brew.)

Moving on the punny name.  I for one appreciate puns with my purchases and Ebel's Weiss is solid in that respect.  Unfortunately this is an anomaly.  The only other label from Two Brothers that is sufficiently punny is Cane and Ebel, which refers to its sugar content and brewers' surname with Biblical characters.  I encourage Two Brothers Brewing Company to come up with more puns for their beers.  Even if they only play with "Ebel" that leaves open several opportunities.  Might I suggest "Ideas and Ebelities," "Ebelsalt Gose" (too obscure?) and a line called "Ebel Bodied Beers?"  Feel free to build from those too.  They're perfectly fermentEble.