Nothing can bring the world together like sports…well, nothing except for the appreciation for a well-crafted beer. When Sierra Nevada’s Scott Jennings collaborated with the oldest brewery in the world, his approach was to focus on what each does best: lean on tradition, and when in doubt, add more hops!
Weihenstephaner’s (pronounced why-hen-steph-on-er) Braupakt is a hearty Bavarian wheat beer with a lot going on. The addition of American chinook and German hops add a bit of spice to the hefty beer, which comes off less like a standard Hef and more like a Weizenbock, which is essentially a hef on roids.
The flavors lean on over-ripe apricot in the foreground, some nice zesty spices lingering around the nose with an overall herbal pretzel finish. Normally chinook hops can be a bit on the abrasive-side (read: Arrogant Bastard) with some piney terpenes (or pinene), it works out in the overall finish in the beer.
If I were to compare it to a World Cup game, Weihenstephaner is the players running around scoring goals while Sierra Nevada’s hops are the pitch, green and ripe for a good time.
Find Braupakt at your bigger beer box stores like Hi-Time, Total Wine & More, or BevMo!
Greg Nagel has been writing about beer since 2011, is an avid homebrewer of wine, cider, and beer, is a certified Cicerone Beer Server, level 1 WSET in Wine, a podcaster with the Four Brewers Show, and runs a yearly beer festival called Firkfest happening on June 29th in Anaheim!