Wishful Drinking Wheat Ale

  When I open a beer to take my tasting notes, it's important to know exactly what style of beer I have in front of me. It's not enough to know I'm looking at a wheat beer, for example. I need to know if I'm looking at a German style hefeweizen, or am I looking at an American wheat beer? It's important for me to know the difference because the two different beers will have different flavor and aroma profiles and it's helpful for me to know by which set of standards I should be judging a beer.

Traditional European wheat beer is brewed with at least 50% malted wheat and is fermented with a type of yeast that give the beer specific flavor profiles. Most wheat beers of this type will have aromas of banana and clove, sometimes with underlying hints of bubblegum. The combination of wheat and the right strain of yeast can give hefeweizen a gentle, doughy character as well. Hopefully, this combines to give a beer that is light, fruity, and refreshing.

Wishful Drinking pours into my glass hazy, and an amber color reminiscent of ripe hay. Streams of pinpoint CO2 support a cloudy, off white head, with good retention.

Taking a sniff, the aromas of bubblegum and clove make their presence known first. Aromas of yeast and raw dough come in second, lending their support. Somewhere in that yeast and bread dough center, I’m picking up just a little bit of fruit ester. Closer examination shows me banana and just a drop of what might be lemon. Just the faintest trace of leafy hops brings up the rear before fading quickly into the distance.

As I take my first taste, I notice up front flavors of clove and some fruit tartness. Fruit tartness tastes more like navel oranges combined with a banana chaser. Wishful Drinking tastes of wheat in the form of fresh baked bread. Unfortunately, fruit tartness tends to dominate its flavors. Brief flavors of hops come out in the finish before fading away into nothing.

As hefeweizens go, this entry rates 5.5 out of 10. Wishful Drinking has most of the flavors and aromas you would expect from this style of beer. Unfortunately, they don’t come together in a harmonious fashion. The aromas strike the right notes, but not in a way that entices me to drink deep. And the flavors are just a little too dominated by flavors of fruit, when the yeast and wheat should be the stars of the show, in my opinion.