Brewery – Braxton Brewing Company
Beer – Haven
Style – Hefeweizen
Recommended Serving Temperature – 45
Recommended Glassware – Weissbier Glass
ABV – 5.2%
IBU – 10

Like this Hefeweizen, may your Haven be unfiltered and full of life. Turn it up and enjoy the moment. Haven showcases yeast driven flavors and aromas, known for its banana and clove characteristics. A medium bodied, full flavored and easy drinking unfiltered wheat beer, this hefe should be stored upside down until it’s time to lift one to life.

Before you even crack open a can of Braxton’s German Hefeweizen you have to notice the can design that was created by Durham Brand & Co. for them.  I talked about it a little bit when the design was first announced, but I suppose you might have missed it.

German Hefeweizens are wonderful beers, and fun in that so much of their character comes from the yeast that is used to ferment the beer.  The yeast is not filtered out of the beer, but is instead left in suspension within it, giving much of the flavors and mouthfeel that fans have come to love from the style.  This fantastic quality is also the downside of it.  Yeast will naturally settle out of the beer as it sits for a little while.  Braxton’s solution for this (that they picked up from some German breweries who use the practice) is to turn their kegs upside down until right before they are tapped, stirring the yeast back up, and resuspending it in the beer.

When you put cans in refrigerators all across Cincinnati, how do you manage that?  You print a brilliant can label that is half upside down that instructs people to store their cans upside down, and then crack them open right side up – essentially stirring that beer back up and resuspending the yeast.

Brilliant, folks, it’s absolutely brilliant.  This is a beer that I fell in love with from the very moment it was first tapped in May of 2016, and now that I’m able to stock it in my fridge at home, it’s cemented itself as a warm weather staple in my house for the foreseeable future.

My Thoughts On Braxton Haven

The beer is really beautiful to look at, especially in Braxton’s tall Weissbier glass from German glass maker Sahm.  The color is a brilliant hazy yellow-orange color, and there is a massive fluffy off-white head that sits on top.

Aromas are banana, clove, and some light fresh fruit.  You won’t mistake this for anything other than a super traditional example of a German Hefeweizen – it screams it at the top of its lungs.

The taste starts off with a nice medium body, and hits you with the banana and clove esters that we first smelled in the aroma.  There’s a nice soft carbonation that leaves this feeling extremely refreshing and clean tasting.  It finishes with a wheaty bready quality and a touch of bubblegum notes.  This is a great beer for warm days sitting in the sunshine.  Just fantastic…