Hopfen Weisse (Brooklyn Brewery)

I had to uncork this bottle as a follow up its German cousin the Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse. It can only get better considering this is basically the same beer, but brewed by Schneider's Hans Peter Drexler at the Brooklyn Brewery with American hops. What a great idea to collaborate on this type of project. I hope to see some other American and European breweries do something similar in the future.

Pours pale, cloudy dark orange. There is some yeast sediment floating around the glass as proof of the bottle conditioning. Never a bad thing. The head is big and fluffy and the carbonation levels seem to be spot on. Its not a beautiful looking beer but its not worth judging it just yet.

Smells nice and citrusy. The hops are definitely in the foreground while the spicy, clovey yeasty smells are in the background. There is some bitter orange that really hits the nose when I take another whiff of this one. Overall, its very intriguing. 

Wow, what a smooth drinking beer. The malt and hops are very well balance. There is some sweet citrus mingling the spicy yeast tastes. Its like biting into a juicy, hoppy orange. Well, that sounds a little strange but thats what I come up with. I have to say that I quite like this beer. Its very refreshing with quite a lot of flavor and that high ABV is pretty much undetectable.

Cheers to both Brooklyn and Schneider! 

BEER FACTS

Name: Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse

Style: Pale Weissbock

Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery

Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Container: 750 ml. corked bottle

Malts: Pale Wheat & Barley

Hops: Amarillo & Palisade

ABV: 8.5%

IBUs: ?

Slam Dunkel (Weyerbacher Brewing Co.)

They were unloading these at Downeast Beverage earlier today and as I had never before seen them I made sure to grab one. It seems to be a very new release from Weyerbacher as there aren't a lot of reviews floating around the net. If you aren't familiar with Weyerbacher you should definitely check them out. They brew a lot of different styles from a solid IPA and a great Belgian Quad to probably the only Imperial Pumpkin Ale on the market. 

I am excited about this "Double Dunkelweizen" since its a style I am beginning to really enjoy more and more. Pours a big cloudy, murky brownish orange color with a big fluffy ghost white head. Its a nice thick head and a great looking pour. This beer looks like a meal in a glass.

Smell is very sweet with some nice spiciness. There are some apple and cinnamon notes along with red grapes and cloves. Its a great smelling beer. I could see this being a scent for a Yankee Candle. Maybe they could market a beer candle line?

Taste is rich and sweet juicy fruit along with some warm spices. There is some dryness that seems to come from the alcohol.  I definitely get a lot of the apple and cinnamon tastes that I could smell along with cloves and banana which are pretty common for the style. This is a great interpretation of the style that brought us the almighty Aventinus. Very delicious and for a penny under $4 its a deal!

BEER FACTS

Name: Slam Dunkel

Style: Dunkelweizen

Brewery: Weyerbacher Brewing Company

Location: Easton, Pennsylvania, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: Wheat, Pale, Munich & Chocolate

Hops: ?

ABV: 7%

IBUs: ?

Hang Ten (Clipper City Brewing Company)

This bottle of Hang Ten is about 10 months old. At 10% it should still be pretty damn good and maybe some aging made things a little more interesting. Time to put another notch in my Heavy Seas belt...

Pours with quite a bit of viscosity, Hang Ten fills the glass with a dark ruby reddish/amber color. The head is quick to fade to a mere film at the top. For a strong beer this one still has quite a bit of carbonation. This is  a pretty serious looking beer.

The smell is very ripe fruit, dried pears, alcohol for sure and hints of baked apples and cinnamon. Hang Ten is reminiscent of Aventinus but maybe a bit stronger with the alcohol notes. 

Taste is quite intriguing actually. Lots of fresh and dried fruit tastes. Definitely a sweet apple cider quality to this one as well. There is some subtly spiciness as well but I think what I am most impressed with is how extremely smooth this one is. Also, not sure if anyone should care but there is pretty much no wheat flavor or quality to this beer. Personally I don't care at all, its a great beer and that is what matters to me. I'm definitely surprised that the alcohol taste is not overly apparent, sure its a bit dry and it definitely warms you up quickly, but there is no sharpness or bite from it. Again, its very smooth. Maybe I aged it just right! 

I'll be on the look out for this one when it comes out again this July. Another great big beer from Clipper City. 

BEER FACTS

Name: Hang Ten

Style: Weizenbock

Brewery: Clipper City Brewing Company

Location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: ?

ABV: 10%

IBUs: ?

The Heavy Seas Collection is:

Small Craft Warning Über pils - Strong Pilsner (Year Round)

Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale - India Pale Ale (Year Round)

Peg Leg Stout - Imperial Stout (Year Round)

Holy Sheet - Strong, Dark Belgian Ale (February Release)

Red Sky at Night - Saison Ale (May Release)

Hang Ten - Weizen Dopplebock (July Release)

Winter Storm - ESB (mid-October Release)

Below Decks - Barleywine (December Release)

Circus Boy (Magic Hat)

Circus Boy certainly has one of the more interesting labels in the beer label world. On the front is a cage and in the shadows is the outline of a creepy looking guy. The label on the cage says "The Hefeweizen!". The back of the label reads "Unfiltered and Unfettered. Circus Boy is cloudy by nature, like Burlington, VT itself. Rouse gently to release full flavor". 

I dumped it in my glass, hoping that was rousing gently. I am never too good at that sort of thing, following instructions I mean. 

It pours a cloudy yellowish-orange color with a head that goes away but comes back with some rousing. Smells of cloves, banana, slight citrus and Bazooka bubble gum. 

This is a smooth drinking beer, but I do admit that I am not a fan of light colored wheat beers in general. But, I again refer to my New Beers Resolution that I made with myself. Circus Boy has a light taste of lemon, bits of sweetness and a little cakey aftertaste.

There are people that love this beer and I am not going to take that away from them. Its an easy drinking hefeweizen that would be nice on an outdoor deck on a hot summer day.

Beer Facts:

Name: Circus Boy

Style: Hefeweizen

Brewery: Magic Hat Brewing Company

Location: Burlington, Vermont, USA

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: Wheat, Pale male, Cara malt
Hops: Amarillo & Styrian Goldings

ABV: 5.2% 

IBU’s: 16

Longshot Weizenbock (Samuel Adams)

Rodney Kibzey of Lombard, Illinois is a serious homebrewer. Its really not a surprise that he'd enter the Sam Adams "Longshot" Homebrewing Contest. A quick Googling of his name brings up quite a few examples of his brewing prowess. I wonder if even Rodney was surprised when his weizenbock was one of three winners chosen out of close to 2,000 entries in Sam Adams' nationwide contest!

The other winners were a Double IPA that unfortunately didn't make it into production this year due to the worldwide hop shortage (it must have been pretty hoppy as it was 9.6% and over 100 IBUs) and a Grape Pale Ale that won the part of the competition reserved for Sam Adams employees. So, there are just two styles in this year's 6-packs. You can get them anywhere they sell Sam Adams and a 6'er retails for $7.99.

Back to Rodney's weizenbock. It pours very nicely with an unfiltered cloudiness that stays suspended in the glass. The head of the beer is bright white and contrasts nicely with the dark ruby-amber color of the beer. It smells like raw apple cider. Thats what weizenbocks sort of remind me of...and apple cider donuts in the fall at an orchard...I digress. 

At over 7% this is a serious beer. It has a rich and complex taste of cloves, baked apples and malty sweetness. This is a nice American equivalent to Aventinus in my opinion. As it warms up it the flavors continue to become more enhanced. 

Rodney, you did a great job with this beer. I can only imagine how good it tasted when you opened that first, fresh bottle after successfully brewing this at home!

For more about the 2007 Sam Adams Longshot Contest winners go HERE!

To enter the 2008 contest for a chance to see your homebrew in production go HERE!

BEER FACTS:

Name: Longshot Weizenbock

Style: Weizenbock

Brewery: Boston Beer Company

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Container: 12 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: ?

ABV: 7.2

IBUs: ?