B.C. Beer Reviews is here today to look at the first-time entry from Faculty Brewing of Vancouver. The 241 MinzeWeizen is a Hefeweizen infused with peppermint tea towards the end of the boil and during the whirpool process. This is a tasty and refreshing tack on a heavier wheat beer.

B.C. Beer Reviews with Nic Hendrickson: Faculty Brewing – 241 MinzeWeizen

Faculty Brewing has taken an educational approach to craft beer. This is due to the fact that the owner and brewmaster was a professor in a former life. The educational approach they are taking is both listing their ingredients and adding the numbers to their beer names. These are like the course numbers from school and let you know how approachable it is for a new craft beer drinker.

Let’s see if the number they gave it was on track.

Colour

Pours a pale golden yellow colour from the bottle. The clarity it pours with at first diminished when it is in the glass. More of a cloudy and straw-like colour when in the glass. This is what you would expect in the style.

Nose/Aroma

The typical aroma of banana that is associated with the Hefeweizen style is fairly strong in this one. You get it right as you crack open the bottle, and even more when the glass is full.

The other aroma is that of mint, and it is relatively strong as well albeit well behind the banana aroma. It could not be categorized as powerful, but it is strong and pleasant. It goes well with the banana notes that are typical of the style.

While there is a subtle sweet aroma from the malt/grain bill, it is hard to catch behind the banana and mint aromas. The banana notes are undeniably the strongest aroma in this beer, by far.

Tasting Notes

The first thing you get in the tasting notes is the sweetness from the malt/grain bill used for this beer. It imparts a rather smooth sweetness at a nice level and gives the beer a fairly full body overall.

The mint aspect of the peppermint tea is present in the taste, but it does not hit you at first. When it does, it is fairly strong. It finishes nicely in conjunction with the dry finish that this one has. It also helps to balance out the sweetness that is common to the style.

There are the strong ester notes present throughout that are typical of the SafBrew WB-06 yeast strain used in this brew. This is another common characteristic of the style, and it is very nice when working with the mint present.

Other Notes

The branding/labeling is rather simplistic, but it is still clean and sharp. It has a white label with three straight green lines above a zig-zagged line above Faculty Brewing and the name of the beer. Straight to the point.

Unsurprisingly for the style, this beer pours a rather significant head. On top of that, the head retention is equally as impressive, sticking around for quite some time after the first pour. If left to its own devices it would probably stick around for even longer.

Another thing that is pretty awesome about this beer, and all of the beers Faculty Brewing puts out, is that they publish the full recipe of the beers they make on their labels and on their website. This is an effort to educate craft beer drinkers and to work with local homebrewers as well. A very cool concept to further the education of craft beer drinking in British Columbia.

Final Grade

There are the typical banana notes of the style in both the nose/aroma and the tasting notes. This is complimented by the strong, but pleasant, mint notes present in both as well. Add in the ester notes on the back end of your palate and a fairly smooth and full bodied beer and it makes for a tasty Hefeweizen.

Grade: 8.2/10

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