Tree: Mellow Moon: Pineapple Hefeweizen (Canada: Fruit Hefeweizen: 5% ABV)
Visual: Hazy banana to apricot. Thin white head.
Nose: Pineapple. Light peach. Banana and cloves.
Body: Wheaty. Banana and cloves. Fresh tart notes. Apricot. Pineapple. Vanilla sweetness. Blueberry as it warms.
Finish: Dry feel but still light pineapple freshness. Cloves. Vanilla and light blueberry.
Conclusion: I have often found it difficult finding a good hefeweizen outside of Germany. Other places seem to be able to make good beers, but they often don’t quite feel like they match the style – pushing too big hops or too sweet base, and they lose the natural balance that I love in the best examples of the style. The balance that make them just so very drinkable.
This, with the extra of infused pineapple, had me nervous but intrigued. I love odd twists, but wondered if it would further move it away from the elements I love in a good weisse. I shouldn’t have worried, they have got the balance on this spot on.
Initially I was actually disappointed instead in how little the pineapple was shown – it was just limited to the aroma, but did finally show itself as the beer warmed. What this did was allow a lovely crisp wheaty hefeweizen to establish itself first – showing lots of banana and cloves, all used to good and just slightly dry affect.
Though good as just a well made hefe, it is the pineapple that is added as it warms that gives it the lovely summer thirst quenching character. Even better it lets the contrasting flavours mesh to create the almost hallucinatory flavours I love so much – in this case a light blueberry like note.
While it is predominantly quite traditional in how it approaches the base, there are still some, mild, calls to the sweeter interpretations, here using a subtle vanilla. It seems, used very carefully that extra sweetness can enhance rather than hurt the style.
Overall this is a very impressive first beer of the trip, and a great mix of hefe and fruit. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.
Background: First beer of the Canada trip! Hefeweizen and fruit infused beers both seem popular during the hot Canada summer, so this seemed an appropriate first one to sample. Drunk at Beer Revolution craft beer and pizza bar. By the way, not only are their staff awesome and friendly as hell – their pizza is fucking amazing. Seriously. Try it. Notes will be a tad shorter for these notes than usual as I was spending time chatting a lot with other people in the bar during the holiday. Not my greatest photo, still getting used to using new camera out in the field as it where.
