Dukes Big Ass Beer (Hefeweizen)

Brewed by Jack Russell Brewing Company
Style: Wheat Ale
Camino, California USA

22 oz. bottle - wow, poor ratings be damned but this was a great brew; pours bright gold and very cloudy; light carbonation and thin white head; strong and smooth aromas of lemons, wheat and yeast; wonderful texture and full bodied flavor; lots of sweetness; yummy

~Pours a cloudy gold with white head. ~Aroma of banana, clove and yeast. ~Sweet banana clove flavor. ~Medium fizzy, frothy feel. Bittersweet finish. ~Enjoyable Hefe. Above average.

Bottle: Whoa, look at those ratings!!! I’m going to be blowing this one away with a good review here. I got my bottle through the beer of the month club and found it to be a nice made hefe, not exceptional, but certainly not bad. Misty yellow, orange, thin head, nice lacing. Nose of sweet malt and honey, clean tart and citric esters (orange, clove). The flavor is a bit musky, some sweet honey and sulpher notes. Not bad, needs more hops. Finishes a bit tangy and musky.

Hmm... I did not think this was that bad really. For what it was. Poured a hazy orange brown with almost no head. Aroma of wheat, oranges, and light yeast. The flavor was much the same. Nice light orange accompanied by a little sweet fruit and a generic cereal wheat. Kind of thin, medium carbonation. It could have been a lot worse.

The aroma is not banana. It is more like citrus hop (or feline ....). Hazy golden color with a white head that filmed, leaving lace tatters. Very thin in body, light, almost creamy, carbonation. The flavor is indeed something glandular, with some clove and mephistolphian accompanyments. The finish is something metallic, with some citric aspects. The finish is astringently dry, and the mouth is not left in a happy condition. Strange stuff. PIne accents appear upon continued assumption (hence the earlier reference to cat ...?). Overall it is not really disgusting, it is just unexpected. So it is what it is. The mouth adjusts somewhat with the passage of time, hence the rating in excess of the average, I suppose.

Straw color, slightly cloudy, small head. Straw nose. Wheat beer, slight hops with slight malts. Mild flavor. Finish is crisp and clean. Aftertaste is slightly hoppy. Not bad but nothing special.

The bottle poured a hazy light amber beverage with a small fizzy white head that was fully diminishing and left no lacing on the glass. The aroma had a moderate malt presence with light notes of bread. There was also a decent hop presence which took the form of citrus-like grapefruit peel. The body was medium but the texture was watery and the carbonation almost flat. The flavor started off slightly sweet and finished about the same. The finish was average in length.

I shoudn’t have expected anything good from a beverage hailing from Duke’s Big Ass. Very sub standard beer. That’s all I remember. Goes great served with whisky and Wrigley’s Spearmint.