Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company
Style: Wheat Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

Bottle. Hazy yellow body. Smells of wheat. Flavor was wheat and sweet, not much complexity. Felt fine in the mouth. Nothing exceptional but could be okay for summer.

Pint - Aroma of wheat, malt and a touch of hops. Pours hazy gold with a medium head and good lacing. Flavor is a boring match to aroma. Palate is thin. I suppose if I was eating hot wings this might be a good beer. Left to it’s own devices, it’s pretty boring.

Doughy, lemony aroma. Slightly cloudy, gold, frothy thin head. Moderate hops, a bit cereal. Medium to medium light mouth. Somewhat buttery.

I always expect Goose Island beers to be better than they are, and I am always disappointed. I got a pint of this at Prarie Moon in Evanston and tossed half of it. Beer is a pale yellow with a small head, only slightly hazy. Nose of lemon and sour malt. Taste of lemon, none of the complexity often present in a wheat beer. Mostly pretty boring, probably fine after mowing the lawn or something. Average for a wheat, at best.

Not a bad beer, very light and refreshing, nothing extraordinary about it though. Some friends highly recommended it, but I think their recommendation was a bit over-rated.

12oz. bottle. Lightly grainy and sweet aroma, full of wheat malt character and doughy, bready yeast with a touch of lemon citrus and honey. Pale, cloudy, yellow color with a very slight head and few swirls of sediment, no lacing to speak of. Flavor profile is lightly bitter, tart and quenching, some malt showing through but the gentle sweetness that accompanies it only really becoming apparent towards the finish, and even then combined with the lingering citric sharpness. Ample effervescence on the palate, paired with a light, somewhat watery body. Perhaps nothing spectacular, but certainly inoffensive and seems to fit the bill of a warm-weather quencher fairly well as the sweetness in the flavor is minimized. Better than some examples of this style I’ve tried.

I put this side by side with the summertime ale. More substance, visible upon the pour and on the nose. I am not a wheat fan, but I find this brew pleasant and a good representative of the style.

Pours a hazy, typical AW, nothing special, decent head. Aroma is mostly cascades, unusual for this style, and in my opinion, a big improvement to the style. Flaor is similarly familiar with a twist. Ultimately , this comes across as an APA made with wheat rather than barley, which puts it well ahead of most in this usually flavorless style.