Setting the standard: Live Oak Brewing Co.'s Hefeweizen

When you’re first discovering the wide world of craft beer, you find a lot of new favorites.  That’s not surprising though, considering there are over 1,700 breweries in the United States alone.  It took some time, and a lot of effort from dedicated beer advocates, but the U.S. finally reached the number of breweries seen before prohibition, which is outstanding.  With this many breweries, especially considering most breweries strive to make the best beer possible, the chances of finding good beer is very high.  Every now and then though, a brewery creates something that is stand-out amazing.  If you go to beer rating websites like Rate Beer or Beer Advocate, these are the top picks.  These are the beers people will wait 5 hours in line for, or pay a seller on eBay $100+ for one bottle.  These are consistently hyped to be the best beers in the world.

A bomber of this has a 'Buy It Now' price of $89.99

One neat tool on Beer Advocate is the region filter on the Top 100 list.  Not long ago I went to the list for the Southwest region (the area containing Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas).  Being that Austin is the odd, liberal, creative town that it is, a lot of the beers on the list came from Austin area craft breweries.  This was great news for me; College Station is only 2 hours away.  Still though, I don’t have the time or money to just drive over whenever I feel like it; it would be better for the beers to come to me! These small breweries can’t afford to produce mass volume, or then distribute too far from home.

A few weeks ago, O’bannon’s announced they would be getting a few kegs from Live Oak Brewing Co.  If you’ve seen the list I referenced earlier then you might realize, Live Oak Hefeweizen is rated the #1 beer in the Southwest region.  If you filter the Top 100 list by style then you see Live Oak Hefeweizen is rated #2, in the world.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic to hear this announcement.

This is my excited face 

The official release was scheduled for 8’o’clock; I was there just shortly after.  My buddy behind the bar, Hoffman, asked what I’d be having.  Without missing a beat I said, “I’m here for the Live Oak man.” I felt a little goofy saying it like that, but I was just so excited that I wasn’t really thinking.  He brought it over and told me that it was the best hefe he’d ever had.  Before walking over to my table, I took a quick sip, and from that point I couldn’t stop smiling.

My pint of Live Oak Hefeweizen was a very hazy straw color with just a thin half finger of head.  Lots of bubble columns, definitely a lively beer.  It smelled wonderful, lots of banana peel smell mingling with lemon and a bit of that classic wheat bubblegum.  The taste mirrored the smell, with different emphasis.  The lemon zest was much stronger, the banana taste came second.  A very subtle white pepper flavor developed on the back end and joined a soft yeast aftertaste.  What really tied this beer together was the active carbonation.  It was very fizzy and it let the flavors tingle your mouth like pop rocks candy.  This beer finished crisp and was super drinkable.

There is no doubt about it, Live Oak Brewing Co.’s Hefeweizen deserves 5 out of 5.  I have never had a better hefe, and quite possibly a better beer in general.  If you ever get the chance to come to Texas and try this brew, don’t pass on it.  My buddy Todd was (unfortunately for him) unable to come to the release party and my praise of the beer made him a little jealous.  I told him “now that I’ve had it once, I’ll want it again, and I’d love to visit the brewery.”  Suddenly, a 2 hour drive doesn’t seem that long…

ROAD TRIP!