Our Sütterbrau Hefeweizen was made to honor Appleton Symphony’s new Conductor Kevin Sütterlin. Kevin recently gave an interview about the beer saying it “It really tastes like home to me, it truly does”. Watch Kevin describe our beer here. (Caution, his sweet words made me tear up a bit!)
While chatting with a friend who spent time in Germany, he opened my eyes to Zweites Frühstück or “Second breakfast”. That’s right, it’s not just for Hobbits! Second Breakfast is a glorious Bavarian tradition that is topped off with none other than a Hefeweizen! The Free State of Bavaria is a southern state of Germany, call the Hefeweisen Weissbier. Come on, America, let’s embrace our immigrant cultures and bring this Beer for Breakfast tradition back!
The Bavarian tradition goes that one has breakfast, Frühstück, at 7 which consists of hearty rolls, sliced meat, cheese, and sweet jam accompanied by coffee or tea. At 11:00 — you know, when you’re thinking more about food than your task at hand — they have second breakfast with Weisswurst, white sausage, served with sweet mustard and a pretzel and always with a traditional style Hefeweizen. My friend said he and some colleagues (many of whom were from Germany) were at conference in Munich and made the mistake of having Weisswurst and hefeweizen at 6:00 pm. The locals with them who knew the tradition looked on in horror: how uncivilized to have Weisswurst and Hefeweizen after noon!
The Hefeweizen has sweet notes of clove and banana that come from the particular yeast used during fermentation. The beer is not filtered so many of those glorious aromas stay put leaving you with a sweet smell to compliment a warm pretzel. The Hefeweizen is a lovely low alcohol beverage to tide you over until lunch or mittagessen.
Bavarian tradition is rooted in Beer. They celebrate the fall equinox (originally to celebrate the wedding of the King) in Munich known internationally as Oktoberfest! We will be celebrating our own Lagerfest with ten other local breweries this Oktober 12th by closing down State Street and enjoying delicious German Lagers. You can buy tickets here, or show up at the party the day of and enjoy beer too–Tickets get you access to three times the beer compared to non-ticket holders. These beers were brewed just for the festival, and you’ll get many other perks, too!
I love the idea of having our Sütterbrau Hefe at 11 in the morning with a pretzel and mustard. Sadly, we don’t open until 3 most days but that didn’t stop me this past Sunday from grabbing a crowler of our Hefe and celebrating Zweites Frühstück with Bobby and our daughter, Jade at 11:03. You can tell by our smiles that this is a tradition we will embrace.
Prost!
