Hatha-weizen - Ale Asylum

So, the Hatha-weizen is something I always wanted to try from Ale Asylum, since I'm a big fan of most beers that they put out. The one thing about this brew is that it's exclusively offered at the tap room at Ale Asylum's brewery (out on the East side, off Stoughton Rd.). If you love you some Ale Asylum go out there and check it out...even if you don't want to stay there you can get a nice glass growler filled with your favorite brew for about $13. The only issue I have is that the growler is clear, which is the worst possible type of glass to store brew in. At any rate, I think refills are about $8-10 bucks on the growlers, so it's definitely worth it.

Vitals:

Name: Hatha-weizen

Style: Hefeweizen

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Ale Asylum's taphouse/restaurant/brewery

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a very light gold color with billowing white head that quickly fades. Decent lacing with a very thin cap. This beer looks to be moderately carbonated and is VERY hazy (expected, given the style).

Smell: Banana all the way with some slight lemon zest and clove spiciness. You can almost make out some pale malt in the background but not quite. It's so odd to smell this beer because nearly all Ale Asylum brews are hopped to the point of it at least being noticeable on the nose, but this one is definitely not. I guess it makes sense, as most hefes are not hopped much.

Taste: Banana and malt sweetness greet you up front along with a bit of honey. The clove spiciness is very slight and leads you into the finish instead of a hop bite, which is well played. You finish out with lemon and citrus hop bitterness that is subtle but lingering. The yeast is more up front and center, as with most hefes. This is a solid but not spectacular taste...you also get some esters from the yeast.

Mouthfeel: Refreshing and crisp, though it's a bit creamier than I expected. This is a very smooth and drinkable beer for the summer. The carbonation doesn't quite come through as much as I expected it to from the look of the beer.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: This beer is a good excuse to go to the Ale Asylum taproom, but is nothing too special. It's a solid hefe, but I'd rather have others. For my money I'll take a Hopalicious/Bedlam/Ambergeddon over this and if I want a wheat brew I'll go with Dancing Man from New Glarus or something like a Weissbier from Franziskaner. Worth a try if you want to support your local breweries and are interested in another take on a hefeweizen, but you can probably do better here.

Cheers,

Hurls

Weissbier - Franziskaner

Vitals:

Name: Weissbier

Style: Hefeweizen

IBU: ??

ABV: 5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a cloudy honey/straw color, with about 2.5 fingers of billowing white head. Low retention and barely any lacing on this one, with a very thin cap left over. Looks to have a good amount of carbonation and is pretty hazy.

Smell: Somewhat typical hefe smell...bananas, yeast, lemon, clove. Much less typical is some very faint (but present) scents of apple and grape. This is, as I said, a fairly typical hefe...but the extras that are thrown in there make it a slightly better smelling hefe than most.

Taste: Immediately you get wheat and yeast up front and slowly the banana, clove and spice work their way into the taste. You actually get more of a fruity finish with apple and grape to pair with the typical banana and other citrus taste. I absolutely love the complexity of this beer and how the taste shifts across the tasting. This is how a hefeweizen should taste.

Mouthfeel: This brew is creamy as hell, but also gives you a little bit of a juicy feel and some definite thirst-quenching drinkability. Not too much carbonation, which is nice...just a great overall mouthfeel for the style.

Overall Grade: A

Comments: This is everything a hefe should be. If you want a hefeweizen and this is available then this should be your choice. End of story. Get out and find it!

Cheers,

Hurls

Abbey Triple - Sprecher Brewing Company

Vitals:

Name: Abbey Triple (yes they spelled it different than the style)

Style: Belgian Tripel

IBU: 13

ABV: 8.41%

Gravity: 19 deg. Plato --> 1.076 OG

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a dark orange, almost a University of Texas burnt orange. ZERO head on this beer, no cap, no lace, NOTHING...so weird. Seems very lightly carbonated, translucent and hazy. To be honest, this looks quite lackluster.

Smell: Fruity (banana) and spicy (cloves) with some yeastiness. Smells good but there's not too much else here. Maybe some other fruits on the nose and there is definitely a faint alcohol smell to it. Smells good but nothing else special.

Taste: Starts with very sweet notes (maybe caramel?) and the fruity banana kick which turns over with the spicy clove and slight bite of alcohol. You get some of the good old Belgian yeast flavor, which is good. Leaves you with a sugary and boozy aftertaste; slight detractor. The middle of this beer is very strong and then fades out, but you get some alcohol heat...hides it's ABV very marginally at best.

Mouthfeel: Lighter side of a medium bodied beer and not much carbonation. Provides the interesting spice/alcohol heat which is interesting...I can't figure out if I like that or not. That feeling rolls down the back of your throat throughout the experience.

Overall Grade: B

Comments: I had this at Quivey's Grove Beerfest last year and thought it was amazing. Now, placing it in context, with more experience with different styles, I think it's still a solid beer, but not as complex as I remember it. At ~$8 for 4 pints it's not a bad deal and is a slight step up from Leffe Blond. I still prefer Bedlam from Ale Asylum or Delirium Tremens if I'm having a Belgian beer at this point. Try it if you're interested, or if you're a Belgian beer connoisseur, but you can probably find something as good or better if you try.

Cheers,

Hurls

Rabbid Rabbit - Three Floyds Brewing

So, in an order to try more Three Floyds beers, I checked out their website and saw what beers were available around this time of year. Rabbid Rabbit (yes, I know that's not how you spell rabid, but that's how they spell it) was one of the beers that caught my eye. I will warn you, this beer (as well as the next one I will review) is a bit pricey. I got a 22 oz. bomber from Riley's, as that's the only place I found this one, but it cost $10.99. That's basically $11 for less than 2 beers. This had better be impressive.

Vitals:

Name: Rabbid Rabbit

Style: Saison/Farmhouse Ale

IBU: 25

ABV: 7.4%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a straw color with 2 fingers of bone-white head. The head dissipates quickly, leaving a nice cap but no lace. Looks to be moderately carbonated; the bright color is quite inviting...

Smell: Big yeasty smell with big banana notes as well. Also seems like some honey, clove, and coriander are in there as well. Lemon comes through somewhat, too. Farmhouse ale is an appropriate term here because it smells faintly of sweet hay.

Taste: You get a big spicy taste up front with a yeasty/bready taste following, moving to the finish, which has a moderate/high alcohol heat to it. To be honest, this tastes more like a Belgian ale to me than anything else (a la Leffe Blond or another lighter Belgian Pale). The finish is drawn out and a bit too sour for my liking, but there is a decent floral/herbal hoppiness that is hidden in there. Doesn't hide the ABV well, but not incredibly poorly.

Mouthfeel: Medium carbonation, medium body. The body is heavier than it looks; the beer almost has a powdery texture to it based on how it dries your mouth out. Coats your mouth with the sour aftertaste it brings. 

Overall Grade: C+

Comments: This is just OK from FFF's; I feel quite disappointed, as I sought this out for a few weeks. This is definitely not up to FFF's standards; definitely the worst FFF's beer I've had so far (which still is a good beer anyways). It's a solid beer, but not for $11 for 22 oz. If I'm spending that on that little amount of beer I want it to blow me away; this beer simply didn't do that. I'd go with Gumballhead instead here, or if you want a true farmhouse ale you can grab some Spotted Cow on the (relatively) cheap.

Cheers,

Hurls

Leffe Blonde - Leffe

So, a friend/former-professor brought this to our BBQ we held with the Ag Econ kids a few weeks back. I had one then and he said it's pretty much all he drinks. Of course I had to give it a try (and a review).

Vitals:

Name: Leffe Blonde

Style: Belgian Pale Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 6.6%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: left at BBQ :-)

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a brilliant gold with about 2.5 fingers of bubbly white head that quickly fizzled out. Light to moderate carbonation is visible to the eye.

Smell: This is a VERY strong smelling beer, which is not necessarily bad (but not good either); it just is what it is. I get bananas and cloves on full blast. You can also detect a certain spiciness behind the cloves, but I can't quite figure out what it is. The spiciness is definitely a Belgian Ale thing (you'll get the same type of thing with a Bedlam! from Ale Asylum). Can't detect any hops here, but you get a certain peppery smell coming through very faintly.

Taste: I'm tasting bananas, cloves, and coriander here - so no real surprises. The beer holds together very well as a complete package, with nearly no bitterness; actually, you mostly get sweetness and then some spiciness at the bite with some alcohol taste coming through. The alcohol taste is usually not a great thing, but it plays well with the spicy bite - it warms you up at the finish. I think ZESTY is a good word for this beer. Solid, but not spectacular, taste.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied; a bit on the creamy side but with carbonation that prickles your mouth. I wasn't expecting this beer to be so heavy, but it's not really a detractor for me.

Overall Grade: B

Comments: I get the impression that this is a standard run-of-the-mill Belgian Pale Ale, but it's pretty solid. The 6.6% ABV is pretty big and you get a nice taste from this beer. You can most likely get this almost anywhere, so I don't believe this one is limited to Wisconsinites! However, I will say, for my money I would take Bedlam! from Ale Asylum over this to get a bit stronger of a taste/flavor and some hoppiness. Solid effort, though - definitely worth checking out.

Cheers,

Hurls

Imperial Weizen - New Glarus Brewing Company

After the last two posts being somewhat lackluster, I decided to revert back to my old fail safe - New Glarus beers. This is part of the Thumbprint series, and is only available for about 3 months. With the Thumbprint series, New Glarus turns Dan Carey, one of their owners (and a master brewer, I might add) loose with whatever he wants to create. Dan considers brewing beer his own personal form of expressing himself in art, so cheers to innovativeness and passion in the brewing process!

Vitals:

Name: Imperial Weizen

Style: Hefeweizen

IBU: ??

ABV: 9.7%

Gravity: ~20 deg. Plato

Purchased at: Trixie's Liquor

Descriptions:

Appearance: THIS BEER IS GORGEOUS! Pour reveals an extremely hazy light orange, and probably the cloudiest beer I've ever had. About 2.5 fingers of bone-white fluffy head (I had to skim some off the top because I couldn't finish pouring the beer), which has extremely good retention. All of this makes sense when you think of the hops they've put into this baby, combined with the fact that it's a hefe.

Smell: Bananas and cloves are strong on the nose here; the beer has a very sweet smell. This is somewhat offset (in a good way) by a biting citrus hop smell and a slight burn of alcohol on the nostrils (reminds me of Anchorman and Sex Panther..."it STINGS the nostrils", but most definitely does not smell like "pure gasoline" :-P ).

Taste: This beer is extremely well balanced with sweet vs. bitter. The wheat, bananas, and maybe grapefruit give you all the sweetness you need. There is a certain clove spiciness to the beer, which is nice. Lastly, the bitter citrus hops roll over top of the sweetness about halfway through the taste and continues on through the finish. The ONLY complaint I have is that the alcohol taste is slightly overstated and detracts a little bit from an otherwise amazing taste.

Mouthfeel: Heavy body (as evidenced by the nearly 20 deg. Plato, which is HUGE for a hefe of any sort). The beer is highly carbonated it seems and it tickles your tongue, turning slightly astringent as the bitterness takes over.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: First of all I need to just sit back and recognize that this is SUCH an innovative beer. A+ on the creativity and effort piece, so cheers to New Glarus and Dan Carey. I love how the wheat is combined with citrus hops to provide a well-balanced taste. Most hefes could not pull off the hop aspect to the degree that this one does. Try this out NOW if you like hefes and hops. The 4 pack that the beer comes in will be more than enough for you; I suggest one per drinking session, and no more than 2 or else it'll put you right on your butt with the 9.7% ABV it boasts. Seriously, go pick up a 4-pack, you know you want to!

Cheers,

Hurls

In-Heat Wheat - Flying Dog Brewery

Summertime = hefeweizen time, plain and simple. As much as I love pale ales and other hoppy beers, there's no denying it's not quite as satisfying when you're drinking a heavier beer in the summer heat. As a result, there will most likely be a flux of wheat beers that I try out and review here on the site. If you're looking for a good one to check out in the meantime; check back to one of my earlier posts for Dancing Man Wheat by New Glarus. Fantastic, though I do admit that it's tough to try something that good early in the process; everything else seems unable to meet the bar, since it was set so high.

Vitals:

Name: In-Heat Wheat

Style: Hefeweizen

IBU: 12

ABV: 4.7%

Gravity: 12 deg. Plato

Purchased at: University Ave. Liquor Store

Descriptions:

Appearance: Surprisingly, this beer was not nearly as hazy as most hefes I've had. There were about 1.5 fingers of head when I made the pour (as seen in the picture above), but the beer had almost no head retention (makes sense from the low hop levels of this beer). Literally, in less than a minute all of the head you see in the picture was GONE. The beer is a nice straw colored gold and you can see tons of carbonation bubbles rising. A sign of good things to come!

Smell: The wheat and yeast in the beer comes through more than most hefes do, but by far the aroma is dominated by bananas and some kind of spice. My guess is probably either a.) cloves or b.) coriander. Either way it smells pretty good, albeit somewhat predictable. I am starting to think this will be a solid, but not totally spectacular, hefe.

Taste: Bananas up front and throughout the experience here; the yeast comes through somewhat slightly and you definitely get a nice clove taste. You can taste a subtle sweetness in the background, a honey-ish flavor I think. It's a nice touch at the end of the drink. There isn't too much about this beer that sticks out (in a good or a bad way); not too complex, which can definitely be a plus (and with wheat beers it often is). Overall a solid taste, confirming my suspicions from the smell.

Mouthfeel: The beer is definitely heavier on the mouthfeel than it looks. Not seeing a hazy appearance lulled me into thinking this would be super light, but the 12 degrees Plato is a solid gravity and definitely fits with the mouthfeel. Medium carbonation, not quite what I expected after seeing so much carbonation after the initial pour, but a respectable amount that adds a nice element. Again, nothing stands out as being incredibly different about this beer.

Overall Grade: B

Comments: So, though non-Wisconsin beers are few and far between here, this is a solid effort that you can most likely get throughout the country. It's a solid hefe that I would definitely drink again, and a good summer beer if you're laying out in the sun. Nothing stands out too much other than the cloves, but try it out and see what you think. A solid hefe on a hot summer day can never be a bad thing!

Cheers,

Hurls

Bedlam! - Ale Asylum

So, as previously mentioned in my Craft Beer Week post, I was able to sample Bedlam! at the tapping/Beer Wars party at Argus Bar & Grille. I made sure to add a bottle of it to my BYO 6-Pack at the Old Fashioned just to make sure I had a chance to sit down and really enjoy this beer and see what I tasted.

Vitals:

Name: Bedlam!

Style: Belgian IPA

IBU: ??

ABV: 7.5%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: The Old Fashioned (BYO 6-Pack)

As an editors note, I completely love Ale Asylum but am nonetheless completely frustrated by their secrecy that they have regarding their beer. They are apparently (after reading some online posts) notorious for not releasing IBU and Gravity information about their beers (most likely for fear of someone reverse engineering the beer and, thus, figuring out the recipe). At any rate, that's why I don't have the information above.

Descriptions:

Appearance: This beer pours a deep hazy orange, with a few inches of cloud white head on it. Most of the head subsided but there were little patches of it hovering on the top of the beer, which was nice. Not much lace is left by this beer in its wake.

Smell: The aroma you get from Bedlam! is quite floral, slightly citrus-y and somewhat bread-y. Mostly on the citrus you're getting orange and grapefruit I believe. Smells absolutely great and you can also detect some herbs/spices in there too, as it is brewed with clover and coriander.

Taste: This beer tastes very good - everything seems well balanced and compliments each other note that you get on your tongue. You get a great deal of orange and grapefruit, with a little light bread taste. You also get a hint of the clover and coriander, which is awesome because it's so well done it is not overstated in the least...just gives it a little bit of spice and a distinct flavor that sets it apart. It's not too hoppy either, so if you're not into hops you can still enjoy this beer. The malt, as with most Ale Asylum brews, is well done and gives a nice background/backbone for this beer, though the breadiness still comes through well. By the way, this beer hides the 7.5% ABV VERY WELL...BEWARE OF THIS BEER!

Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel on this beer is very smooth, medium to light body, almost juicy. However, it definitely has enough resin from the hops to stick on your tongue and teeth after you begin drinking. There is a small amount of carbonation, but it's not overstated and is not a detractor.

Overall Grade: A

Comments: I absolutely LOVED this beer and would recommend it to anyone. It is citrusy enough that many non hop-heads would like it, yet it still has enough hop flavor to cater to a true hop-head. Get out and try this beer now - it is on tap at a lot of local places, including (but not limited to) two of my favorite spots: The Old Fashioned and Argus Bar & Grille. It is a seasonal brew, so make sure you get it while it's around. It is a great summer beer and should be enjoyed over the upcoming months!

Cheers,

Hurls

Dancing Man Wheat - New Glarus

Third review of the night, third New Glarus beer. I can't help it...if they have beer that I haven't tried I have to give it a shot (for the most part).

Dancing Man Wheat is a bright and lively hefeweizen wheat beer, but I have to say I have to try this beer without the influence of any type of fruit additive. I think a solid wheat beer should be able to stand on its own, but that's just my opinion :-). Beer stats are as follows:

Name: Dancing Man Wheat

Style: German Hefeweizen

IBU: 10 - 15?

ABV: 7.2%

Gravity: ~1.055?

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

The Descriptions: As you can see this beer poured very head-y and took quite a while to settle down so I could pour the whole bottle. The smell of this beer is amazing, sort of like banana and cloves and is a deep yellowish-gold in color. True to German Hefeweizen form, this beer is extremely hazy/cloudy giving it that nice unfiltered look and taste.

This beer tastes as good as it smells, reinforcing the banana and clove flavors and also with a slight citrus taste. The beer is somewhat dry but finishes very smoothly and is very very very deceptive insofar as the alcohol doesn't come through as a 7.2% ABV beer. The beer isn't overly yeasty, which is awesome, and it has a creamy hefeweizen-esque mouthfeel.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: Honestly, this is one of the better wheat beers I have had recently. If they are offering it in kegs I may consider getting a quarter barrel of it this summer. In 90 degree weather this would be absolutely perfect to enjoy in the sun. It's a very refreshing beer and is a must try for anyone who has any interest in drinking a hefeweizen. This totally redeems the Two Women lager that I finished prior to this one. Go out and pickup some of this while you can.

Cheers,

Hurls