Beer – #529 – Panhead – Whitewall Hoppy Wheat Ale

Weird Beer, Weird Musics, Weird numbers and Weird parties.

Any petrol head knows you can’t redline the engine all the time…sometimes you just need to drop the seat back and cruise.

Getting amongst it with a Panhead Whitewall Hoppy Wheat Ale this is another of the summer fill-your-own from a keg, so I have 1 litre bottle of a 4.3% ABV beer, around 3.4 standard drink units and 129 calories a serve size.

Brewed by Panhead Custom Ales in the style that is Wheat Ale and pinhead are in Upper Hutt, New Zealand

Endless Summer of fyo beers

Much as we enjoy a big hop-rod it’s nice to kick back and cruise on occasion. Whitewall pulls a very diplomatic 4.3% with a clean, crisp mouthfeel imparted by a touch of wheat in the malt.

Whitewall is the ultimate cruisy summer beer – brewed to a very smooth 4.3% with a clean, crisp mouthfeel achieved by a small amount of wheat in the malt.

The heavy hop addition is like dropping a V8 in a Mini and showcases the new generation of fragrant Aussie hops – Galaxy, Enigma and Ella.

Best enjoyed on the back porch late afternoon after a bit of self-congratulatory physical exertion

Well I might have thought about mowing the grass, so that counts and what could go wrong with that thinking? First though I ponder on the number of fill-your-own beers that I’ve had recently, which is a departure from the bottles that you or I can buy, so I’m beginning to think that I might have to cut back on the beer that you might not be able to get and get back to the things you might have a chance of buying. It is just a thought.

Anyway you can buy Whitewall in bottles. Not that I have, but it is in stores.

This has a sugar sweet aroma that you might expect from a ‘wheat’ ale, it looks anaemic and pale and a bit unattractive, I’ll pour it into a glass and watch it transform into a swan.

And like magic in a glass it becomes brighter and has a great fluffy head, like I knew it would.

Aroma begins to hint of the hop additions.

To the taste then. There is a wash of hop bitterness which overlays a soft middle, There is also a surprisingly dry finish which I wasn’t expecting but perhaps should have.

But, however, and, I don’t know so much that this is a wheat beer. The cynical in me wants to say is this another “throw some things that are available together” and see what comes out, which is simplistic yes, but using new generation hops, and then adding ‘a touch of wheat” seems a bit, to me, odd. Look I like new styles and things, this though seems a bit neither of one thing or another.

So what I do get is ‘crispness’ but I do get “hop bitterness.

Then again this isn’t a Belgium wheat and that’s where the problem in my thinking might be. The pour is lovely, the second glass behaving the same as the first, big fluffy head, really looks a charm.

The nice things about this are then, the low but noticeable hop levels and bitterness, the soft middle even if it a bit unidentified, but not so much the towards dry finish.

Uncomfortably I’m not over-enthusiastic about this as a beer. I’m going to use the word ‘thin’ to describe the middle, the carry, the body, the bit where you want the fun to happen. Hop aroma carries to a similar hop taste and that for me is about it. A bit of a disappointment.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 of of its things from the thing. It really isn’t something to write home about. Whitewall the tires, dress them up a bit, make them look a bit flash, I don’t think they took the name in the same way, but this is a bit dressed up and it is a party for itself.

The double dip review

Am I enjoying it? Not so much.
Would I have another? I had to I have the whole bottle, but it lasted a while.
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Oh no not even.

I had some new musics on, this time, “The Novatones”, and a track ‘Living For The Weekend’ from a release called “Begging At The Bunhouse'”

They’re active on the social medias, they are a four-piece with a knack for creating energetic indie-pop songs. And that’s where I went wrong. Pop songs. They’re very energetic but it is of little substance.

WHEAT ALE

Golden to light amber in color, the body is light to medium. The wheat lends a crispness to the brew, often with some acidity. Some hop flavour maybe be present, but bitterness is low. Not as estery as German or Belgian-style wheats.