Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale

Brewed by Flying Fish Brewing Company
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Cherry Hill, New Jersey USA

Clear, with very tiny suspended particles, super light gold. Thin foamy white head. Light carbonation. Zesty wheat aroma laced with spicy/floral hops. Crisp and refreshing. A bit husky in the base malt flavor, with traces of Belgian malt flavor, but more than tolerable and it dissipates quickly. Clean and relatively dry. Wheaty with a nice snappy bite to it. Spicy hop flavor and lingering aftertaste. Light to medium body. Nicely balanced with evident Goldings notes. Finishes a bit sweeter and slightly more floral in the hop aroma and flavor. A Belgian style brew, hardly. More like a very tasty hopheads American Wheat. Thanks to jca_lbi for the sample.

growler from witbier... Billed as Grey Lodge 10th Anniversary Dunkel Farmhouse but this is no different than the regular Farmhouse Summer Ale. In fact, I don’t get the Dunkel monicker either b/c there is nothing that is "dark" about this version at all. A bit of a letdown, as I had hoped to have the same version but with dark malts added. Appears a pale light gold with a small white head that quickly falls out into a gentle collar. Mild CO2 bubbles slowly rise to the top. Small spotty lacing is left around the glass. Smell is of pils sweetness, sourdough bread, and definite wheat that comes out like crushed shredded wheat cereal mixed with a gentle hoppy spiciness. Taste is of the described aromas. Actually tastes ok with all things considered. The killer here is that it’s not a true saison. The English Ale yeast is definitley present and sadly not a Saison yeast. I would love to try this fermented with the duPont, or Fantome yeast. I know they do a sour mash with this but it just doesn’t touch upon the funky, horse blanket, open fermentation that the real style emulates. Mouthfeel is light bodied, smooth, crisp, airy, with a semi-dry finish that settles out with a slow wheat that drags down the back of the tongue. Drinkability is alright. I know FF keeps this drinkable for the masses. One of my old neighbors knew I was heavily into craft brews and she brought me up a few bottles a couple of years ago. She described it like a lighter hefe weizen. She didn’t know much about beer but something prompted her to buy a case of it. To me, this would be more of an American Ale than a Saison. Fellas need to make money though. Maybe we could get a Farmhouse "Roots" version of FF sometime soon in the big corked/caged bottles where they use the same recipe but a Saison yeast.

tap at some bar in the philly area, Pretty decent beer. had a bit of a sweet malt taste, little hopped, smooth body, a good summertime beer.

(2002 edition)a light refreshing summer ale. yellow color with a white head. citrus nose with a yeasty aroma. nice clean palate, much like a hefe-weizen with more spices and a hoppy edge. hasa bitter finish with a lingering aftertaste

Tastes crisp and fresh. Fresh apple and sour yeasty notes in the aroma. The mothfeel is thin and lacks the body that I was hoping for with this farmhouse style beer. Would be a delicious beverage for a hot summer day and went pretty well with my Ethiopian food.

Certainly drinkable. Not a lot going on. I like the mild spicy touch (pepper, clove?) that shows up after a decent malt introduction. Only decent beer I could find in Southern NJ, except for that Sierra Neveda....

Clear golden with a fluffy small white head. Decent lacing. I liked the fact that FF did not fall into the common trap of making their Summer Ale overly flowery in aroma and citrusy in flavor. Very quenching with tart finish overlaying a short hop bite. My second fav. in the FF line (ESB is 1).

On tap at local bar. Perfect for a summer’s day like today was