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

Blonde Doppelbock - Capital Brewery

Vitals:

Name: Blonde Doppelbock

Style: Doppelbock

IBU: ??

ABV: 7.8%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a burnt orange (very nice), with a half-finger of off-white head. Slightly below average retention, minimal lacing, and a small, thin cap. There looks to be plenty of carbonation in this one.

Smell: Smells of light malt, with a unique green apple smell to it and a hint of caramel and maybe toffee. You mostly get malt and citrus aromas, though, with a slight grassy hops aroma in the background.

Taste: The flavor is quite disappointing after the smell. I will say it improves a bit as the beer warms, though. At first it's very flat with mostly sweet malt and alcohol heat (that is not well-disguised or hidden by the beer). I thought there was a spice to this one, but it was mostly just the alcohol heat, which hits earlier than most brews. BORING.

Mouthfeel: Very creamy, but nearly no noticeable carbonation...which is very odd considering this beer looked highly carbonated. Sticks to your palate a bit; not too much else to describe here...very standard.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: Not too much to say about this one; it's probably my favorite Capital Brewery beer, which is NOT saying much...this one is pretty forgettable.

Cheers,

Hurls

Raging Bitch - Flying Dog Brewery

Vitals:

Name: Raging Bitch

Style: Belgian IPA

IBU: 60

ABV: 8.3%

Gravity: 18 deg. Plato

Purchased at: Harris Teeter in Herndon, VA

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a deep orange that slightly shifts to amber in the light. About a finger and a half of off-white (tannish) head. Good retention and cap, but very weak lacing. Sparse carbonation bubbles rise throughout this pretty beer. 

Smell: Smells spicy and you get that funky (in a good way) Belgian yeast smell. You get some banana in the smell as well, and a very faint floral and possibly citrus hop aroma. The Belgian yeast really dominates the nose, as it usually does - this one smells good but there's really nothing special here.

Taste: The taste gives you some almost piney (maybe floral) hops to go with the Belgian sweetness up front. The yeast and malt in the middle is good but it doesn't really balance the beer out. The worst part of this beer is after the hop finish you get this aftertaste that is like...aspirin...ugh, it really ruins what is otherwise a pretty good beer. You also get a slightly boozy flavor, but at 8.3% that's to be expected so I think it hides the ABV moderately well.

Mouthfeel: Creamy and full mouthfeel; drinks smoothly with a very slight astringency. The beer is almost syrupy in its feel and you don't really get much carbonation here either.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: The aftertaste truly ruined a solid B+ effort from Flying Dog on this one. I was otherwise happy with the beer until that stabbed into my palate. Ugh. This beer is worth a shot if the aftertaste was a fluke, but after writing up my review I looked on beeradvocate.com and it seemed like others were getting it as well. I'd probably steer clear of this one unless you're really into Belgian IPAs.

Cheers,

Hurls

Dankenstein IPA - Pearl Street Brewery

Once again, LOVE the name of this beer...just hilarious. This has me thinking there will be some extreme dank hops in this beer, which should provide a very new and interesting experience. I am stoked to try this out and this would represent the sixth and final beer in my BYO 6-pack from the Old Fashioned Craft Beer Week event.

Vitals:

Name: Dankenstein IPA

Style: American Double / Imperial IPA

IBU: ??

ABV: 9.5%

Gravity: ??

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

Descriptions:

Appearance: Ummmm...WTF Mate? This beer is, as you can see in the picture, DARK DARK brown to the point where I'd probably mistake it for a chocolate stout if it had any head on it. The look of it seems to fit the name Dankenstein, but not the style (IIPA) as much. Very hazy with nearly zero head on the beer and minimal, if any, carbonation. I can, without a doubt, say that this is the most surprising I have been when I have poured a beer out and been utterly shocked at how it looked based on my prior expectations.

Smell: MALTS ABOUND! I have never smelled a maltier IIPA in my somewhat limited experience of drinking this type of beer. A little piney hop smell sticks its head in there, but caramelized malts and burnt sugars far outweigh any floral, piney, or other hop smells. There may be a slightly grassy hop smell, but again...this is not what I expected PRIOR to the pour. After I poured it and saw that it seemed to basically be a brown ale I am not surprised at the results from the sniff test.

Taste: So we all know smell is connected to taste. Very evident here. Caramel malts hit your tongue early and often here. The beer tastes (I would say surprising here, but the 9.5% ABV should clue you in) unsurprisingly boozy (i.e. it does nearly nothing to hide its alcohol content). Almost no hop flavor comes through for me, which is still surprising, despite the malty smells. The beer also seems a bit bready and somewhat nutty. NO HOP FLAVOR...UGH!

Mouthfeel: This beer is very thick and creamy. Pearl Street Brewery doesn't release any gravity figures on this beer, but I don't doubt it could be north of 20 deg. Plato. This is a VERY heavy beer, well suited for a brown ale or stout/porter lover. Not for me, but the mouthfeel completely matches the appearance.

Overall Grade: B

Comments: I would've graded this sucker lower based on expectations but I'm trying to be objective here. If you are expecting a big hoppy IIPA (a la Double Dog from Flying Dog Brewery) you will sorely disappointed and I would grade this a D- in that case. However, if you like nutty brown ales, porters, stouts, etc. then you wouldn't be disappointed with this beer. Don't go near it if you're expecting to be wow'd by hops, but if you like the types of beer listed above, give it a shot and I don't think you'll regret it.

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