Carmel Wheat Beer

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: Wheat Ale
Hopland, California USA

(12 oz bottle: Trader Joe’s in Pacific Beach, CA) Got another Trader Joe’s special here, so the price is definitely right. Of course, no price is right if the beer isn’t good, and well, I’m glad I just bought the single bottle. The floral, sweet, and strongly perfumy nose and flavor is just way too bizarre for a wheat beer. In fact, it’s not even all the pleasant for any beer style, and the perfumy aftertaste is just horrible. The finish seems reminiscent of a Belgian -- a sugary sweet one -- but most definitely not a good one. Light-to-medium bodied, but it thins out in the finish, and it just sits on the palate like an unwelcomed guest. Hazy, dark golden in color. Plenty of swiftly-moving carbonation bubbles rush to fortify the bubbly, off-white head. Despite that, the head fades to nothing and leaves no lace. Probably best if I just stick with buying Spaten Optimator at Trader Joe’s; it’s only a buck more per six-pack and far more enjoyable.

12 oz bottle - gven to me by Aurelius. Pours a medium golden - little to no head. Tangy aroma, reminds me of bubble gum and cotton candy. Flavor is sweet - reminiscent of a weak Belgian that had a protein drop. Syrupy, maple notes in there - but kindy of gummy. A little bit of banana in there as well. Mouthfeel is somewhat cluttered.

Poured a clear golden color, not hazy at all. Hardly a head at all. Just a very bland smell and taste. There may have been wheat in there, but I couldn’t smell or taste it. Below average for me.

Pours a clear straw color, small foamy white head. Grainy aromatics with a tinge of hefe yeast esters. Grain and DMS dominate the flavors, with a slightly sweet acrid finish that is an unreasonable facsimile of the traditional hefe bite. Mouthfeel is thin and watery.

Bottled. Murky golden. Slight hefe smell, not really. Wow these last two rating have been really bad but it is becasue of the beer i’m rating.

I was expecting the smooth wheat notes of an American hefe, but got a slightly bitter flavor instead. Not horrible, but nothing special either.

Dark yellow, almost orang with nothing much to resemble a head. The aroma reminds me of fruit salad. Flavor-wise, I find little wheat or yeast, but rather a bitter apple context with a sugar malt undertow.

This is an average beer. Maybe a below average wheat beer even, but not a bottom 14% disaster. Good hazy golden color. Forgettable nose. Taste only slightly wheaty, only lightly hopped, ok clovely bite. Not great, but drinkable with ribs. // NOW NEED TO DOWNGRADE. If it were not for the lemon, would have had little taste at all. Not much wheat flavor, not much flavor at all. Yellow beer, small head, no citrus or spice ... more lager / malt than wheat.