White Labs Yeast - 320 American Hefewaizen Ale

I agreed to brew a German-style beer for a charity dinner. Those styles are not my favorite. HOnestly, I sort of fear the banana and clove flavors, because I've had beers where they were really unpleasant, overwhelming off-flavors. I settled on a Weizenbock, and hoped to keep the banana and clove at moderate levels with this yeast. It was in primary at 68 for three weeks, and after 6 weeks in the bottle... it was fine. Everyone at the dinner liked it. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't anything spectacular. That was in October 2012. Yesterday (June 2015) I just found a dozen I had forgotten about. I popped one open yesterday while brewing a barleywine, and as if to remind me just how much aging can improve a beer, the weizenbock was absolutely amazing. There were sherry notes, and a nice, very subtle undertone of spice and dark fruit. What really surprised me, though, was how clear the beer was--transparent ruby. I used wheat malt (obviously, for a weizenbock), and this yeast is said to produce a cloudy beer. Perhaps after all that time, everything precipitated out. But now I have to make this beer again with this yeast--and soon. Hopefully it won't take the full three years to mature.

Clean fermenting yeast. One vial into 2 qt starter for 10 gallons. OG 1.045. Fermented 65 to 70 deg range. no immediately noticeable banana, clove, or other notes. Yeast seemed to annunciate the hop flavor a bit too. Slight haze, as expected. Fyi, yeast stalled part way and racking it re-started the fermentation.