Sugarcane syrup provides sweet foundation for honey-spiced caramel malting, zesty citric effervesence and floral-perfumed hop zest. Dry navel orange, tart grapefruit, overripe lemon and peach undertones reach the crisply clean sugared finish. Simple. Effective.
Underwhelming cherrywood-smoked amber-hued moderation lacks body, depth and underlying sweet malt contrast of similarly styled German rauchbiers. Initial peat-seared cherrywood smokiness dries up quickly, leaving only mild campfire singe, distant barbecued meat char and evaporative cedar burn to complement delicate pilsner-Vienna malting.
Soft-toned pleasantry lacks body as watery briskness coddles freshly-squeezed lemon tartness and modest grassy-hopped astringency to its weak white wheat spine. Wispy floral-spiced herbage fades beneath lazy lemon-limed finish.
Lively grapefruit juicing briskly saturates moderate dry-wooded hop bittering. Lilting mango, pineapple, papaya and navel orange tropicalia sweetens light biscuit-malted white wheat spine. Serve to mid-range India Pale Ale lovers as well as noble pale ale imbibers.
This years model utilizes sour yellow-fruited saison yeast to enhance its floral citric Cascade hop pep. Musky lemon rot, bruised grapefruit and moldy peach illusions crackle with a fizzy carbolic spritz, bringing a certain astringency to the rye-dried white wheat backdrop.
Tiresome lemon pulp souring receives soft yellow-wooded Amarillo hop bittering over skunked vegetal herbage. Raw-honeyed ginger and ginseng notions never fully integrate and doughy malts pick up gluey paper residue. Befuddled citric sourness belies surprisingly clean finish.
Spot-on moderation with pasty barley-wheat stead and cereal grain toasting picks up lemony peach-orange-tangerine tang above spicy citric hop peppering. A bit bland in this day and age of big beers and specialty hybrids, but never off-putting.
Promising soft-toned hybrid combines orange-peeled coriander spicing of a Belgian witbier with the grassy-hopped ‘floral citric’ aromatics and resinous pining of an American wheat ale. Mildly creamed caramel malting anchors yellow-pink grapefruit tang and navel orange juicing to biscuit-y white and red wheat spine.
On tap at Shepherd & Knucklehead, amiable moderation lets lemon-rotted orange and tangerine tartness drift into pale oats-flaked wheat graining and raw-honeyed chamomile tea niche. Faintest banana-clove-bubblegum whim found below.
Mildly interesting bronze-hazed moderation brings burnt buttered popcorn aromatics to soft pretzel-breaded wheat spine. Perky Seltzer hop fizz enlivens doughy pretzel scamper as well as tertiary sesame, poppy and caraway illusions. Stylistically – not related to any Shock-Top Belgian yeast strain yet encountered.
Directionless mishmash lacks clear identity but doesn’t necessarily suck. Despite having its hybridized light chili peppering depleted by dirty earthiness, pesky maple-sugared chocolate malting and subsumed raisin-prune conflux sweeten honeyed pumpernickel spine. A certain acridity beckons at the murkily mocha-derived finish.
Balanced, though nondescript, pale wheat ale (bottled for Illinois’ Local Option Bierwerker) recalls rich multi-grained Extra Special Bitter. Clean-watered minerality allows brisk lemon crisping to soften bread-crusted wheat biscuit midst. Dewy herbaceous remnant and a hint of brown rice found at unresolved finish.
