A1A Aleworks Summer Wheat

Brewed by A1A Aleworks (Gordon Biersch)
Style: German Hefeweizen
St. Augustine, Florida USA

Sampler at brewpub pours a golden straw with thin white head. Aroma and taste, wheat, citrus with notes of orange peel and a light bitter citrus finish. Very so, so, not much of a yeasty presence to speak of.

When a waitress tells you that the main flavor is banana, that’s not a good sign. This wasn’t the best beer I’ve had... and for that fact it was close to the worst, but the red brick ale beat it out (also at A1A). This beer almost has a medicinal taste. Yuck!

Draught. Pours cloudy straw/yellow with a small head. Aroma is unmistakably German Hefeweizen. I didn’t notice any off notes, just some nice clove, hay, and yeast. A very traditional take on the style, and very enjoyable in it’s faithfulness.

I am not sure what was wrong with this batch, the beer, or whatever else, but the two tastings of this beer had a pungent dishtowel aroma to the beer. If you could hold your nose, the beer actually had a lemony taste to it. Thinking it might be the glass, I poured the second into a glass I had just finished (of another beer entirely) and got an astringent doctors office aroma that put me off so much that I had to abandon the soldier in search of a better libation. Avoid.

The aroma is sour and tart with yeasty notes, but ont he whole sm,ells rancid to me. The body is a cloudy yellow with a diminishing white head. Grainy trasting fore, lightly yeasty with mild banana and creamy poundcake notes. Clove notes are utterly lacking and I feel like a have gotten a liquified banana poundcake made with rancid butter.

Draft... Cloudy straw-colored ale with a mid-sized, soapy, white head. Great retention. Yeasty, phenolic aroma with notes of bread, lightly toasted grains, clove and a puff of campfire smoke. Lightly sweet, mildly bitter flavor with a modestly acidic lemon twist... the trifecta of balance. Medium-bodied and very creamy with prickly carbonation. Breadsy, lightly grainy, mildly bitter finish.

This was a perfect wheat beer, probably a hefeweizen but was not stated, great yellow cloudy color, with a huge thick white head of foam, great lemony and banana flavor that was just perfect for the 90 degree florida heat.