Clipper City Heavy Seas Hang Ten

Brewed by Clipper City Brewing Co.
Style: Weizen Bock
Baltimore, Maryland USA

This may be no Aventinus, but it sure does rank up there. Well done. Spicy and estery, sweet but not so much so.. I suppose that I find this has not near the complexity that the German counterpart does, but is still quite enjoyable nonetheless. That it is 10% is more than well hidden.

Bottle, courtesy ucusty. Thanks! Pours hazy dark copper with a thick and fluffy off-white head. Fruit, spice and funk in the aroma. Almost a Belgian character. Full body and light carbonation. Sweet liquid wheat taste with ginger and bananas. Softly bitter finish with some wheat sourness.

Big thanks to Fly for sharing this one with us! Orangish-red pour. Smell is mostly like a hefeweizen, but with more sweetness. Taste is similar, with more strong malty tones than expected, and it works nicely with the yeast flavors. Pretty easy drinking with somewhat sweet doppelbock like richness. Not really getting a lot of wheat in the flavor, but it is still quite nice.

Bottle: Deep caramel, thin off-white foamy head, drops quickly, sparce lacing.   Bready nose, slight dark pitted fruit, slightly vinous.   It also seems as if there is some sort of Oak aged like aspect to this.   Quite flavorful on the tongue, sweet biscuity malts, very minor dark pitted fruit, bready but not heavy.   Seems more of a Dopplebock than a Weizen, or at least by mouthfeel.   Picking up some notes of cloves and banana towards the backside.   I thought it would be a bit heavier, but as is it feels much more like a lager (doppelbock).   Flavorful finish, lingering sweet malts with notes of dark pitted fruit.   This one has a slight vinous character... perhaps its red grapes that I detect?   Interesting to say the least, and still quite enjoyable even if not what was expected.   After a while the head and lacing are completely gone, making this beer appear still.   Very tangy and tart on the exit.   The Wheat aspect takes a backseat to the Doppelbock portion, but thats okay.   Lingering raisin/fig attributes.   Decent, especially considering it is 10%!   DAYUM!   Thanks Brian for the bottle!

Deep cloudy-rufous. Dirty-white head maintains a steady ring of thickness which surrounds the broken center. Peppery alcohol, pineapple upside-down cake, cherry, and caramelized bananas comprise the simplistic aroma. Hint of vanilla, brown sugar, iron, and puttylike yeast. Fluffy carbonation. Bottle conditioned. Tacky body. Juicy esters quickly succumb to spicy yet astringent alcohol and a flabby and cloying candied-plum fruitiness. Banana character is overripe rather than bright, and more reminiscent of banana taffy than pure fruit. Glimpse of bubblegum momentarily exudes before quickly fleeting back into the muddled sweetness. Mix of overripe plums and relatively scratchy alcohol create a subtle medicinal effect. Poor attenuation also tarnishes the texture and flavor, as the substantial residual weight deadens the underlying subtleties. Slightly worty, even. Belly-warming alcohol is omnipresent. Finishes brightly fruity with hints of spicy clove, pineapple and banana, yet persistently sweet with lingering dabs of medicine, sugar-doused cherries, and warming pulses of peppery alcohol. The brewers unfortunately went the high-gravity route with this, and it suffers as a result. Borderline unpleasant, and certainly too sugary and unfinished, among other things, for me to enjoy.

bottle. pours red orange minimal head. nice banana aroma, some spice in there as well. taste brings in some wood, smoke, and fruity yeast flavors. very smooth with light carb that prickles the tongue. alcohol is dangerously well hidden. an excellent dark wheat. definitely worth a try.

Purchase before month notched: Mar ’08. 12oz bottle courtesy of Ryan (artusory), thank you. Hazy reddish brown with a thin beige head that took about 8 seconds to fade to a thin ring. I am able to smell what would make this a weizen bock--there is some banana, hints of clove, and a light lemony tang. Unfortunately, there is a tang that seems more like garbage juice in there as well. Very hot alcohol lets me know this is going to be a kick in the cajones. Light tanned leather is also in the aroma. Leather and tea were not the first things I tasted, but they were close. The old stale lemon tang wasn’t exactly refreshing. Fermented bananas were somewhere in there. Earthy powdery dirt dry finish--not a complete sentence, and I don’t care. Luckily the alcohol did a better job hiding--I could still taste it, but it wasn’t near as boozy as the aroma led on. Low carbonation with a medium body. I love this style, but this, I did not.

Dark brown pour with slight garnet hue around the edges. Virtually no head. Malty, alcoholic aroma with brown sugar, yeast, dark fruits, banana and even some smoke. Medium bodied with medium carbonation. Taste isn’t quite as good as the aroma but there is a nice malty/sweet/raisin thing going on. Finish reveals cherry, more alcohol and lingering sweetness. Needs a fuller body to really make me want more.