Full Moon: Bussaba Ex-Weisse (Thailand: Hefewizen: 4 % ABV)
Visual: Hazy lemon juice color body with a large, mounded, small bubbled head.
Nose: Very fresh pineapple to tinned tropical fruit. Wheaty. Light cream. Banana sweets. Cloves. Orange zest.
Body: Pineapple. Cream. Vanilla. Peppery. Wheaty mouthfeel.
Finish: Lightly wheaty. Lightly bitter. Dried banana. Black pepper. Lime.
Conclusion: Not a traditional weisse this one, that was evident on first sniff of the aroma coming out of the glass, but it does wear the trappings of the style, just in a so much fruitier way than normal. Having finished I googled and saw they used ginger flower to make this, and I wonder which of the different notes were caused by that, as I have no idea what ginger flower tastes like. Ginger maybe? Probably not.
Anyway, there is so much pineapple flavor and aroma in this, probably more than in several weizens I’ve had that were actually made with pineapple. It makes it super refreshing and super fresh.
Over time that fades a little allowing a more traditional weisse character to show through, with familiar orange fruit character, peppery savoury spiciness underneath and a present wheaty mouthfeel. Not a complete match for the German weizens but close enough for it to work.
It seems most complex at the top and tail, with the long finish letting multiple layers show themselves. The body by comparison is fairly simple yet refreshing pineapple and peppery character, with much more range of the fruit and spice as you let it float out at the end.
Not a must have weisse, but a tasty refreshing one. After the poor showing that Full Moon had with their cold IPA I wasn’t expecting much but I really enjoyed this one.
Background: I picked this up from the 7/11 in Bangkok at the same time as the prior Full Moon beer I grabbed. Probably a good thing as I was not a fan of that beer so if I had waited until after I tried it I probably wouldn’t have picked up this one. Googling I see this listed as 4.7% ABV but the can clearly says 4, so I’m guessing they have tweaked the recipe over time. Speaking of recipe was made with ginger flower. Also this apparently this won a bunch of awards, good for it. From the website the name says it is named after “Bussaba”, the most beautifully scented woman in Thai literature. So now I know. Also it says they use fresh hop rather than hop extract. Dunno how common hop extract use is in Thailand but apparently common enough they decided that was worth mentioning. Again I completely forgot I had brought my own glass so used the glass in the hotel which is not the best for this kind of beer.
