Appearance

The beer pours a cloudy deep gold with 6cm of dense, creamy, white head that settles into a craggy cap within 4+ minutes. Exceptional lacing and great head retention. Very attractive looking beer.

Aroma

Medium-light strength and leaning towards sweet. Delicate. Fruity and phenolic yeast greets you with notes of apricots, sweet orange, banana, and cloves. With its soft, bready-grainy wheat character, the malts provide an exciting interplay between these two ingredients. No apparent ethanol or hop aroma. There's a hint of generic metallic minerality coming through right after the pour. Smells a bit like the bottle which I suppose is expected. Luckily it doesn't stick around for long.

Flavour

Follows the nose very well with medium intensity and sweet-ish balance. Yeast-forward with delicious esters featuring notes of apricot, sweet orange, and banana. A phenolic spice reminiscent of cloves steps in midway along with the wheaty malts which all continue to entertain the palate with their tug of war. The finish is of moderate length and intensity with enough spicy yeast character to balance out any malty sweetness.

Mouthfeel

Medium-full body with moderate-high carbonation. Creamy with pleasant crispness and smooth alcohol warming that seems to kick in quite late. No astringency.

Overall

Weihenstephaner Vitus demonstrates excellent craftsmanship with nice complexity and interplay between the yeast and the malt bill. A balanced brew with fantastic drinkability for almost 8% ABV. Quite wonderful – try it!