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

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

Wheat Monkey - Lakefront Brewery

Another wheat beer, as promised, for the summer months. Brewed at Lakefront Brewery, this is most likely available to Wisconsinites and maybe a few other Midwestern states. And, without further delay, on to the good stuff...

Vitals:

Name: Wheat Monkey

Style: American Pale Wheat Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 4.2%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Hyvee

Descriptions:

Appearance: This beer pours very light and clear for a wheat, with basically non-existent head (what was there disappeared almost immediately). The beer is a pale gold/yellow color. I definitely wouldn't peg this as a wheat beer just by looking at it, but I guess it's not a hefeweizen, but rather an American Pale Wheat Beer, so I will reserve judgment for the time being.

Smell: Not much smell to this beer; slightly citrus smell (lemony, to be exact) and maybe some biscuit malt, but it's so faint that you can barely smell it. After the Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat this is a big letdown.

Taste: Mostly a lemon taste, with a metallic aftertaste that is extremely unpleasant. What the hell is it with this beer and their metallic taste?! I felt the same way about the Cream City Pale Ale. The taste is just unpleasant to a certain extent; the lemon comes through prominently, there's not much hop taste (almost none at all) though they call this a Pale Wheat Ale. The metallic taste just sucks...not gonna lie.

Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel for this beer is watery and unpleasant. Lakefront doesn't release their gravity stats but I would say this is probably 1.04-1.05, extremely watery. The beer seems like it was filtered WAY too much and left almost nothing in the beer.

Overall Grade: C-

Comments: Not too great; wouldn't ever drink this again unless I had very VERY limited options. I wouldn't bother to give this a try and, to be honest, didn't even want to finish this beer. I wouldn't recommend this beer to anyone unless you want a watery, simple beer. Maybe it was just a bad batch, but I think not. Shame too, because the monkey on the bottle looks so joyous. Damn deceitful monkey and his watery beer...

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