Wieden Bräu Hanfbier

Brewed by Wieden Bräu
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Wien, Austria

On tap at the brewpub. pale, slightly hazy gold in colour with a decent white head. I would agree with the comments below about the massive herbal edge to this beer, which was the dominant feature. This added a lot to what was otherwise a decent lager, with plenty of grainy savoury malts and some dusty hops. Good stuff.

Considering the style, Scores ranging from 1 to 5, 5 being the most intense
Appearance:
Body:   Clear(1)->Murky(5) : 2     Pale Yellow(1)->Copper(5) : 2     Still(1)->Sparkling(5) : 3
Head:   None(1)->Large(5) : 4     Lasting: 2     Lacing : 5
Aroma:
Intensity : 4  
Yeast : XX   Bread : XX   Apple : XX   Tropical Fruits : XX   DMS : XX   Diacetyl : XX Sulphur : XX  
Malt : 3   Pilsner : XX   Pale : XX   Vienna : 2   Biscuity : 2   Hay : XX   Toasty : 2   Caramel : XX   Honey : XX   Cereals : 2   Grainy : 3
Hops : 2   Noble(1)->American(5) : 2   Leafy : 5   Floral : XX   Lemon/Lime : XX   Herbal : 5   Grassy : 2  
Flavor:
Initial Flavor : Dry(1)->Sweet(5) : 3   Finish Dry(1)->Sweet(5) : 2   Sourness : XX   Bitterness : 2   Farmy : XX   Complex : 2   Length : XX
Palate:
Light(1)->Full(5) : 3   Flat(1)->Fizzy(5) : 3   Clean : 2   Crisp : 2   Sharp : XX   Watery : XX   Oily : XX   Chalk : XX   Astringent : XX   Alcohol : XX   Mineral : XX   Oxidation : XX

Comments: Certainly pot-like, hugely herbal and not too sweet. Keeping a strong graininess through to keep the beer character. Little bitterness, but focused herbal finish and excellent leafy aromatics all along. This could easily have been a mess, but the master brewer here knows his business.

Draught at the brewpub:
Intensive hemp aroma, light herbal. Pale golden color, small creamy head. Pithy hemp taste. Light sweetish, light dry bitter finish with hemp notes, too. Unusual, but a try worth. Thirst quenching.

I'm not a huge fan of flavoured beers, as IMO most of them are novelty and are just a way of selling more bad beer, but this is pretty special. My overriding impression was "dandelion and burdoch" - a drink we in the UK are fed as children. It's a kind of woody, resinious and very unusual flavour but here it works very well with the full-bodied pale beer. Surprised and impressed - can Wieden do no wrong? (on draught in the brewpub)

Sampled draught at the brewpub.
Cloudy pale golden. Fruity raspberry aroma. Mild and fairly sweet with reasonably soft malt profile and low biterness. The hemp does good to this beer.

Light cereal and something I’ll just call hanf aroma. Hazy golden color, white frothy head, nice lace. Light bitter, some special taste I’ll also blame to the hanf used in this beer. Mode long finish which is light maltsweet.