Drakes Hefe-Weizen

Brewed by Drakes Brewing Company
Style: German Hefeweizen
San Leandro, California USA

Has a wheat grain aroma with a hop smell of lemon. Pours a hazy wheat color with a lemon hue, frothy white head and lots of action. Nice crisp taste of wheat with lemon/lime flavored hops. Light bodied, some butter and resin feel, with lively crisp carbonation. A session craft brewed Hefewiezen that is refreshing.

Honey colored with a small white head. The aroma is yeasty, with a notes of citrus, sweet candy, banana, and mellow hops. It has a fine hefeweizen flavor as well: spicy, coriander, fruity and even a little grainy. Extremely drinkable with an alcohol tinged finish. Smooth with nice carbonation. The palate might be a little thin. A super solid beer and a good example of the style. Underrated!!

Light golden color, with white opacity from proper yeast inclusion. Well balanced carbonation for the style. This purported American/German style mesh leans more heavily towards the American, with a flavor and body that suggests a greater equality in the ratio of barley malt to wheat malt than is customary in traditional German examples of this style. Excellent estery tang, complemented by the yeast bite. Not as quaffable as I would like in a hefeweizen, particularly compared to more classic examples. Credit must be given though for paying more than the lip service that some microbrews do to a niche style

Opaque golden-peach. Head pours white, fluffy and dense, and settles to a dense ring. Really nice aroma crammed with tropical fruit esters, lemon cake, wax, soft doughy malts, and leafy hops. Understated spicy clove, banana, and cream notes enhance the ripe tropical fruits and phenols. Soft mouthfeel. Sparse, bubbles, yet moderately spiky. Light citrus twang immediately greets the filmy yeast notes. Peppery clove balances the soft, lightly toasted, crackery malts as the bubblegum yeast character picks up. Spritzy bubbles scrub the palate and provide substantial dryness, while loudening the clove, cilantro, and leaf notes. Closes with a white grape, yeasty mixture while flower petals, firm maltiness, and herbal hops reside on the palate. Delightful aroma and more than enough yeasty, ripe fruit, and firm malt flavors to manage the light acidity. Lovely Hefe.

Draft at Drake’s. Much better than the run of the mill American Hefeweizen. This beer has substance and is yeast forward so to speak. It also is nice to look at, with a hazy straw color. The aroma is of yeast and bread with a touch of banana. The flavor is of yeast and quite buttery, soapy in a good way. Very nice beer.

An outstanding wheat from one of the best brewers on the West Coast. Aroma is nice with hints of yeast. Appearance wasn’t as cloudy as I’ve seen in some wheat’s, but it was a nice dark golden color. Mouthfeel was incredibly silky, very creamy. Flavor had clove, crackers, bananna and some pepper in it. I could drink this all night. VERY well done by an awesome brewery."

Cloudy amber body is topped by a wet, white head. The head really could be bigger to be true to style, but that's the only flaw in the appearance The aroma is bubblegum and a hint of wheat. The flavor is loads of bubblegum, not as much as Schneider, perhaps, but this is obviously using really hefeweizen yeast and not just another American wheat beer. Low on the clove. A bit chalky, but not excessively. The body is creamy and smooth. One of the better American attempts at the hefeweizen style.

smells almost champagney. mostly diminishing white creamy head with virtually no lacing. cloudy with small particles, average density with a light yellow-amber color. good hefe flavor with not much of a finish. light to medium body and soft carbonation