Poured hazy gold with fluffy white head. Huge aroma of meat. Lots of meat and smoke flavor in this guy. Can’t wait for it to be on tap again.

It’s just not my type of beer - it seems well done for the type. Sampler at Princeton. Reddish brown body with a wispy head. Oily texture and overall sausage taste really just turn me off. Smoky flavor is a different direction that the one I want to go with beer. Lightly hopped, which is a negative for me. Well crafted, but hard for me personally to enjoy.

Hand-bottle sent to me a while back from Dickinsonbeer. Thanks Paul! Murky amber colored body with a thin head. Aroma is definitely smokey, but also has tinges of clove, anise, and yeast. The taste is complex, following the aroma but also adding in flavors of banana and lemon zest. Truly an interesting experience.

Date: 11/01/2006
Mode: Hand Bottled
Source: Tasting

clear brown, whispy head, streaks of lace, smokey banana aroma, smokey malt flavor, nice slightly sweet banana character, just the right amount of sweetness to balance the smoke, light bitterness, the smoke and banana makes a nice combination

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 14/20
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **4

I really enjoyed this type of beer. Poured hazy yellow with fluffy white head. Aroma of a BBQ. A smoky flavor throughout with some fruit hints. Very different and very good.

This was a first for me at the Garden State Craft Brew Festival in June 2007. Triumph Brewing was by far the best at the fest.

Hand-bottle thanks to Dickinsonbeer, sampled in Nov. 2006: Pours a slightly hazy copper bronze with a thin ring of lightly-lacing off-white head. Great smoky wheaty banana clove aroma has good complexity. Body starts lightly sweet and malted wheaty with a nice balance of mild German hops. Palate is average, but could be a touch thicker. Very true to style, however, and enjoyable.

growler at Dickinsonbeer’s on 1/20/07. light tan head, clear golden amber color. aroma is smoky bubblegum and a bit sour. flavor is grassy malt, also gets a little bubblegum too. tangy and a bit watery finish. thanks, Paul!

Poured a hazy amber color. Huge smokey aroma that smells a like spent fireworks, but not in a bad way. Flavor of smoke and bananas. Light to medium bodyied. Semi-dry finish with a hint of spice.

30.07.06 Tap at New Hope, also brought growler home, also had the Princeton version 14.07.06 from a growler courtesy of egajdzis at BCTC. These two versions are only similar, but each one was freaking fantastic. I didn’t take notes on the Princeton version, knowing that I’d be having it again shortly in New Hope, but not realizing it would be a quite different beer. Whatever, I loved them equally and will stand by my score as an amalgam of the two with notes on the NH version only.

The beer is a hazed dark amber color with small and fading tan head. Aromas immediately waft and I’m rapt by the woodsmoked siren’s song. The wonderful honey, clove, and banana notes do nothing to contradict the mission of the smoked malts, in fact enhancing the overall picture of the beer in such a beautiful way as I’ve never before experienced. Caramelized fruits abound on the palate as if lightly charred on a campfire stone. The interplay of hefeweizen tartness with the natural acidity of the smoked malt is a wonderful dance. I will say that the Princedton version leaned more heavily on the hefe yeast esters, while this New Hope concoction if more firmly rooted in its Bamberg soil. The finish is predictably long as the sweet and smoke tickle the palate forever. Even driving home I can still taste this beer and enjoy retronasal wafts of burnt beechwood. Why, I beg, has this style of beer not been better explored!?