Tag Archives: Wheat beer

Apr 10 2013

Beer – #143 – Renaissance – Enlightenment – White As Wheat IPA


Renaissance – Enlightenment – White As Wheat IPA. A most unlikely beer Brewed by Renaissance Brewing In the style of a  Wheat Ale in Blenheim, New Zealand.

Renaissance - Enlightenment - Wheat as

Unfiltered beers are prized by artisan brewer worldwide who relish a pint that’s cloudy and hazy with nothing striped away. We do too, so at Renaissance, our White IPA is packed with unmalted wheat and doses on NZ grown American hops. Aromas of dried tangerine and fresh citrus. A luscious body with a lingering evergreen finish. Think of it as a beer made, and served the way way nature intended, “cloudy as.”

500ml 74% ABV (2.8 Standard drink units), of which I’m expecting something nice.

Cloudy, golden yellow, fruity citrus not to astringent. All of that.

It’s cloudy, smells musty, seems to pour flat, and I got nothing by way of head. It’s also darker brown than I’d expected.

It tastes ok though :-) , syrupy, malty sweet, and just a touch of alcohol on the back. It’s not half bad. There is however a bunch of grassy notes in this too. Bit of a melange of things. And that’s not half good.

A confusing set to deliver, not as quiet and settled as a traditional wheat beer, and not an IPA either. Soft of a half/half and in doing so not quite making a whole one.

So, the pdubyah-o-meter says 5. and that’s just because I want to enjoy this more. As a beer for the evening this has left me a bit empty and I might struggle to finish it, but I will, and mumble under my breath about each moutfull. It might be that  I just don’t get the Wheat/IPA thing, but there is possibly a good reason that  this isn’t a thing. Perhaps I should have thought it through some more.

Not for the faint of heart, and this might just ring your bell, but this is not for me

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Feb 24 2013

Beer – #122 – Townshend – Three Piece Wheat


Nice play on words Townshend – Three Piece Wheat, Brewed by Townshend Brewery in the style of a : German Hefeweizen and they live in Upper Moutere, Nelson, New Zealand

Townhsend - Three Piece Wheat500ml bottle of 4.5% ABV beer, that’s about 1.8 standard drink units. 4.5% ABV surprised me, for no reason other than expectation I was expecting more (obviously).

The head brewers mother comes from Hall in Tirol, Austria, so this top fermented, cloudy Bavarian ale is a small tribute to one of the most wonderful people in the world. True to style, it contains 50% malted wheat and uses a yeast strain imported fromWeihenstephan, Germany.

It’s also unpasturized and unfiltered. So “pour with care” I’m mumbling under my breath. They promise a classic wheat beer with  hints of banana and cloves.

There’s nothing remarkable in the aroma, apart from the lack of an aroma. It’s slightly darker than I thought it would be, and the lower carbonation means of course that it struggles with a head.

There’s nothing remarkable in the taste either, mostly the fizz of bubbles masking whatever is underneath it. If you squint you could imagine a banana taste, if you really try. As for cloves, they are pretty understated to the point of absence.

Also not cloudy.

So of the three things that I think I’d like in a wheat beer, in no particular order;  Golden yellow colour, cloudy in appearance  and tasty of lemons or citrus,  what I get in this is a glass of fizzy water.

The pdubyah-o-meter casts this a poor 4 on it’s scale of things, and an indication that you’d do well to miss this, as the brewer may have given it a crack but has also missed the target, badly and awfully.

And that’s never a good thing. To their credit they didn’t make up that it was a hybrid brew or a special concoction they’ve gone balls out and called it. Disastrous.

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Nov 11 2012

Beer – #91 – Coronado – Orange Avenue Wit


A beer from the US of A, Coronado Brewery Orange Avenue Wit, of 650ml of a 5.2ABV beer – Coronado Brewing Company, Coronado, California USA in the style: Belgian White (Witbier).

Our spiced California style Wit is both refreshing and complex. Brewed with wheat, coriander, California orange peel and local orange blossom honey. From the first sip to the last you’ll find subtle flavors of bread, spice, citrus and a thirst quenching orange honey finish.

One of those beers that feels compelled to tell you what you’re going to taste which should have been a bit of a flag, but I allow some leeway as it’s a big bottle with a lot of real estate to fill in.

It’s a very pale golden colour, lively carbonation,  and musty hops. The taste is overwhelmed by the bubbles. Either it’s too cold or they’re making it up about the smorgasbord of flavours that should be present, perhaps I left them in the bottle when I poured  the first part.

I like a wheat beer, I enjoy the fruits under the alcohol, the front and lingering taste. This isn’t any of those things. It’s all very ‘meh’, which means the pdubyah-o-meter arbitrarily really doesn’t like this and makes it a massive swing-and-a-miss at 4 arbitrary things from it’s equally arbitrary number.

If two thumbs up was the best this would be 1/2 of 1 thumb. Very disappointing,and disappointed in this. Without anything to reference, I can’t find a best before date on the bottle,  but I did find an  importers sticker saying that it’d been imported over a year ago! (July 11) Quelle horreur!

I’d say based on that, that I might be drinking a beer that is past its’ best, way way way past,  if I was being charitable.

If I was being uncharitable, I’d say avoid. I would say however take the extra two minutes to find a date. Lesson learnt. Gives self an uppercut.

Can’t change my score on this, it was worth every one of the 4 arbitrary things, sadly making this possibly one of the worst beers I’ve had in ages.

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Nov 3 2012

Beer – #88 – Wigram Brewing Co. – Ginger Jerry


The Wigram Ginger Jerry bottle of 330ml sized 4% ABV beer, the quiet end of a night out.

Brewed by Wigram Brewing Company, in the style of a Belgian White (Witbier), and of course they’re in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Another addition to the Wigram seasonal range, Ginger Jerry has the full body of a wheat beer with the extra zing of infused ginger, honey and lemon resulting in a naturally sweet lemon ginger spice aroma. Cloudy in appearance the beer radiates with a warm rich orange hue. Brewed with a Belgium Ale yeast and low in alcohol, Ginger Jerry is a refreshing beer for all seasons.

For no reason other than I saw it this is a “best before September 13″ beer. Not even sure why that bothers me, or even if it does since I had “keeper” beers that I drank that were 5 months old. It is what it is.

Lets be upfont with what I expect, the citrus (read lemon) and ginger that the label promises, and that’s about all. So…….

It has ginger whiff , it has a well goodly amount of carbonation, and I get a cut grass aroma. The head which starts off all excitable like a puppy dies away fairly easily, I really do have to find a middling point with this aspect of beers.

The Palate is of a harsh bitter ginger that leaps and barks at you, like an excitable puppy, it’s very long on the palate, very long and almost troubling. Peppery and tanging on the tongue. There is a lemon back taste, but it’s like washing up liquid. What’s going on ?

Gak. This is almost like drinking washing up liquid, it’s not  really hitting any mark at all, and confuses to deceive as a beer. Not sure what the goal was but this might be an own goal of massive proportion.

This isn’t even a sweet ginger ginger beer, this is the worst of the bitter, and a mufddled taste, what I get is all grass, it’s fairly unpleasant. Lucky it’s 330ml and not something substantial.

The pdubyah-o-meter resists strongly but lurches to a really weak 3 things from it’s equally arbitrary number.  This should take a bus trip to Geradine and join the “muster” that I had a couple of beersago, and they should elope to and hide as recluses never to be seen again. Ghastly.

A poor finish to a night, and would have been a tragic start to a night, the chaps at Wigram need to sit in the sun more and listen the the inner voice, because whatever caused this wasn’t contemplation and thought.

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Sep 3 2012

Beer – #56 – Sawmill Brewing Company – Crystal Wheat Beer


Sawmill Brewing Company – Crystal Wheat Beer. Brewed by Leigh Sawmill Brewing Company in Leigh, New Zealand ,and they style it as a Wheat Ale.

A beer with a flip top lid,  500mls of 4.5% ABV craftiness. As usual it’s buy first think about it later with me and having read about it later I have the trepidation.

Named “Crystal” because of its unique qualities, this beer is made to one of our own special recipes using 50% pilsner and 50% wheat malts. Light amber in appearance with a foaming white head, this beer has unique citrus fruit flavours. There is a hint of spice and a mild bitterness coupled with a medium hoppy aroma. This is a refreshing summer drink that can be enjoyed with a squeeze of lime juice. 4.3 to 4.5% abv

And I’m thinking “what have I done?” It could be a Frankensteins monster of a beer. It doesn’t seem to be what it wants to be.

But it does come with a flip top lid.

So it’s clear like a lager, it has the citrus lemon of an aroma- fleetingly. It even has a a head. And it had a magnificent poppage when I opened it- like it should.

yeah, the confusion of tastes, there is hoppiness, there is a lemonade shandy ness, a confusion of carbonation and a long mouthfeel taste of none of those things. I get an aftertaste of hops, it’s not good.

I am a fan of the wheat beer genre, there should be no mistake on that, and I’ve had a wide range of them. This is down the wrong end of the range. I’d be happy to put it at the end of a firing range and take pot-shots at it, this isn’t a beer that you could straight-face describe as a wheat beer. Or perhaps you can, in New Zealand, the same way you can trademark Radler I assume.

Arbitrarily then I can’t even give this an arbitrary out of some number rating.But I will being 3 from 10 arbitrary things. I might have found another beer that I’ll struggle to finish, and the frugal in me hates that.

The Leigh Sawmill company can do, and do have better beer than this. “The Doctor” for example – not a wheat beer. I’m in doubt about how this beer came into being, I’m not convinced it started as one thing, someone made a mistake and they had to sell it as something with a “special recipe”  and they do tell you to add lime juice to give it flavour. Enough said.

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Aug 31 2012

Beer – #51 – Hoegaarden Wit


 

Don’t think badly of me. I enjoy Hoegaarden Wit beer, it’s light, lemony and usually pours with a head, but since It’s me it doesn’t. Which means I can’t pour beer or live in some dead zone. No it’s not a craft or special beer.

It’s a commercial beer, the shame.

Hoegaarden Wit, 330ml 4.9% ABV. Brewed by Brouwerij Hoegaarden (InBev) in the style of a Belgian White (Witbier) and it’s made in Hoegaarden, Belgium

If you’re unsure about Wheat beer/White beer/Wit beer there would be far far worse places to start than this. It consistent like commercial beer is.

Arbitrarily this is always consistent  and 8 from 10 arbitrary things. giving it more would give away the lie that it’s somehow a craft beer, which clearly it isn’t. It’s a good beer however and I’m going to enjoy this one and the 3 mates it came with. Probably the beer that got me started on “different” beers truth be known.

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Jul 21 2012

Beer – #39 – Gavroche


Gavroche is a French beer, produced by Brasserie de Saint-Sylvestre, and they make the magnificent trois Monts that I like a bit.

Gavroche – Biere Sur Lie – which is beer on lees. Who knows? It’s a cunning French thing. It’s named after a character from Victor Hugo‘s novel, Les Misérables.

It’s (according to the label) Fermentation Haute – which is like a beer version of Cuisine, or Fashion 0r just that it’s an indication that it’s a craft beer.

330ml bottle of 8.5% ABV beer. I was for no reason at all expecting a pale wheat beer, except that previous beer from the Brasserie de Saint-Sylvestre has been that way. But I was wrong, it’s a dark rich red – a very inviting color,  but it does has a very familiar  yeasty aroma.

For all that lead up I found that none of the things is bigger than the whole, and the whole is a bit less than the parts. It’s a bit thin on taste, overly carbonated on the tongue, and somewhat sweeter than I was expecting. No head and no lacing on the glass. And did I mention gassy?

So a French Red Ale, top fermented and re-fermented in the bottle. It’s certainly full of it’s own importance and upfront about what you’re getting. Alas it’s mostly bluster.

On the pdubyah-o-meter for some  arbitrary measure out of an equally arbitrary thing, and this is a poor show at about 4 from 10. It’s not that it’s a bad beer, it’s just not all that., and I’m certainly not into it. For a strong beer you’d hope that you’d get a sense of being slightly taken on a ride to the smile place, an indicator on your palette that you might be about to take a walk on the wild-side. That of course could be it’s ruse, it’s ace up the sleeve, the more you have the more you love it, and you’ll never figure out why.

Those nice guys at the Wine Circle in Huapai I tip my beret to you for this one.

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Jun 30 2012

Beer – a Visit to the Factory – WilliamsWarn


A colleague and I were driving to somewhere to do something trivial when I mentioned to him that we’d just passed the WilliamsWarn showroom/shop. It was as much as I could do to get him to not pull the hand brake on and go right back. We did what we had to do and then we made all haste back to the store.

Where we met Ian Williams, of WilliamsWarn, We didn’t have an appointment, we hadn’t called and we just walked into the shop. Ian spent about an hour with us, and has such passion and excitement for his creation. He is incredible, explaining to us the pitfalls of brewing, why homebrew fails to meet taste levels, and how making your own mash works, and why temperatures are so important.

It really was a standout remarkable experience, totally ad hoc, unannounced and totally welcoming.

And we got to try some of the beer that they have brewing in the machines. We had a Summer Ale, Pale ale, Irish ale and a dry hopped pilsner.

I didn’t so much like the summer ale, to me a bit thin, but the other three were remarkable, particularly the dry hopped one we finished with and that seemed to bring the most joy to Ian in describing it.

The Mark I machines are all sold, the Mark II machines are in progress of being made, they’ll have digital dials instead of analogue (which for my money isn’t a good improvement, nothing says science like an analogue dial) , and the dispense tap will be on the top of the machine not the side. Oh and a better gas bottle arrangement.

If I could persuade MrsPdubyah that I could get a return on my investment on this, and I am working on it, then I would have one of these at the drop of a hat.

Ian Williams told us that there will be a Cider and a Wheat Beer addition to their range shortly, they’ve been cautious because they’re developing the machine and not the consumables, but having picked up some prestigious awards recently, notably a  Gold Medal at the Asian Beer Awards, they’re confident that they understand what they have to do, and that the owners of these machines also know what they are doing enough to be able to use their own ideas to come up with results.

I can see these being an addition to small cafe bistro outlets, can you imagine a dinner evening with a limited edition beer match to a great food experience? I’m sure there are some legalities about produce for sale and taxes, nothing that couldn’t be overcome.  And there was a suggestion that long-term they might produce a 50 liter or 100 liter version, and Ian has in mind a real entry level device that would address the beginners market, all in the future.

They’ve managed a lot with a little budget for advertising, I know they’ll be on TV shortly on Campbell Live on TV3 in NZ, and they are expecting a jump in numbers on the waiting list from Kiwi’s wanting to experience a commercial quality beer at a home brew price.

Oh and did I say from woah to go, that’s from closing the lid on the machine to pouring a sparkling A-Grade beer was 7 days. Just 7 days all up, all in. 7 days, imagine. And you don’t have to decant or bottle it, it stays fresh as in the machine for ages “if you’re doing drinking wrong”. But you can bottle it, and you could produce 23 liters of beer a week, and you could bees a different beer each week, and you could invent a beer that no-one could replicate, and the possibilities are endless.

A real New Zealand success story, and when he’s a multimillionaire I am going to be able to say I had not one, but four beers with the man that made the machine!

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Apr 15 2012

Beer – #16 in a series – Emerson’s Weissbier.


Oh Hai!  I’m a bit partial to the Wheatbeer beer, and so I get around to one that’s been on the list for a while the Emerson’s Weissbier but often taken a back seat to some of the other more extravagant beers that I’ve been lucky to try of late.

Googlvating tells me “An especially imported Bavarian yeast strain gives Emerson’s Weissbier its authentic German character. The beer pours a cloudy, pale golden colour, and has a sweet bready aroma with notes of banana and sherbet. In the mouth the beer is spicy and tart, with some grainy sweetness. With age, Emerson’s WeissBier develops a clove-like aroma and the taste becomes softer and more cidery. Bottle Conditioned.”

It’s a 500ml bottle of  ABV 5.0% beer, so up there with the “premium” beers you get in smaller bottles. I did get the “cloudy’ that I sort of expected and you do get the lemon tang that is weissbier, so a sort of result. Frankly though a bit disappointing overall it’s not as zingy on the tounge, and fizzes away in the glass like a cheap firework.

So to the arbitrary pdubyah-o-meter this is a disappointing 6 from 10 stars. If you’re offering I’m drinking but if I’m out and buying I’ll have a closer look at the rest of the shelf first.

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Jan 10 2012

Beer – #3 in a series – The Cornish Wheat Beer


Today it’s Skinner’a Cornish Blonde. Skinners, a brewery in Truro, Cornwall. Of course I get mine from the wonderful peeps at The wine Circle in Huapai out in the wilds, one of the 156 beers they have available.

A Cornish Wheat Beer, unlike any other wheat beer I’ve ever had. I’m used to a more ‘lemony’ citrus taste from wheat beer, this was a bit tart and flat. The label indicates that it has a superb citrus finish, I’ve just started it so perhaps that comes nearer the end, because it seems to be missing in action in this bottle.

Had a quick shifty on the interwebtubes and discovered that this is “Suitable for Vegetarians Not Gluten Free” – and I have no idea what to make of that.

Comes complete with a comedy label and a promise to donate to a surfing organisation in the uk, it might appeal to the quirky types, but then again as a beer aimed at surfers I might be being a little precious about the gravitas of the label.

Slightly disappointed with the taste like I said, but it does have the lovely cloudy wheat beer look, even if it doesn’t have the taste to back it up.

7 arbitrary stars out of 10 arbitrary stars for this one.