My other first love: Erdinger Weissbier

Ah, how well do I remember when I first laced my lips with the silky texture of this golden nectar. I was a but a young lad, entirely witless and inexperienced, or at least slight more so than I am today. I enjoyed those days living in Munich, at 14 years not quite of legal drinking age - the kind of detail that did not matter all that much at that time and and in that place (it may still matter very little there today). We would be going out in the early evening on our bicycles and occasionally ending up at the local beer garden, where we would indulge in a half Mass (i.e., half of 1L standard Bavarian measure) of Erdinger Weissbier. Next to Schneider Weisse, this was then my favorite  "passion cerevisiae". Never mind that we would normally have at most two of those and then make our way home intoxicated more by the fun of being out there than by the amber nectar, peddling along the amazing web of bicycle paths that criss-cross Munich. It seems all a little strange when I think about it from today's vantage point. Beer is considered an alcohol in the world where I now live, not a food or a youthful indulgence, and my appetite for beer has evolved from sheepish desire into voracious craving. No longer does drinking a beer involve the adventure of a bicycle trip to the beer garden and the occasional appropriation of an empty Masskrug. Instead, I pack my motorbike full of empties from Beau's and make the 45 minutes trip across the linguistic border to Ontario to get my hands on as much Lug Tread as I can manage to pack without compromising the strength of the side cases.

This beer has a much lighter appearance than its twin sister Schneider Weisse, and its flavours are white bread, rye bread, and sour dough bread. What a delight for the bread lover. Also, the rich wheat and yeast texture of this beer makes for an incredible mouthfeel that could be compared to downing a pint of oil. The hop notes are subtle and slightly spicy, as are the fruit notes, just enough of both to balance the overall palate without taking you out of the bread bakery. What a trip down memory lane this was, and personally quite gratifying to see where the roots of my love for beer lie. To give this beer a stage that is worthy of its stature, I chose to have it prance on the shore of Lac des Deux Montagnes near Montreal, where the backdrop reminds a little of a Bavarian lakeside.