Goose Island Batch 2000 Wheatmiser

Tap at Clybourn brewpub, Chicago. Golden pour with white head. Sweet aroma. Tastes sweet, wheaty, fruity, malty. No distinct taste in this one. Unremarkable.

Small sample (thankfully) at Goose Island Clark. Pours a clear glowing viscous yellow golden with a fine white froth. Aroma is very strong bubble-gum and super sweet extra ripe banana, sweet fermenting fruits, fermenting banana. Flavor is very cloying overripe fermenting banana and bubblegum, massive banana liquor. Doughy chewy very viscous, light fizzy carbonation. Glad I got a free sample. This belongs mixed into a tropical drink.

Tap at the Clybourne location. Pale golden pour. The nose is intensely sweet with a lot of candyish and cotton candy aroma. Very sugary palate with a real tooth-aching sweetness. A little bit of peach and rotted fruit. Vegetal and DMS laden. Herbal hoppiness but nothing could even come close to balancing all of the unfermented, underattenuated malt sugars in here. Gak!

On tap at GI Clybourn served in a snifter. Slightly hazed copper pour with a thin head of lasting tan foam. Okay lacing. The aroma was a little dull for a beer this big. Some toasted wheat followed by some faint caramel notes. The flavor had creamy, lightly toasted wheat, caramel, a hint of fruit skins, and a very mild alcohol warmth. Full-bodied and lightly carbonated. The bourbon-aged version blows this away. Bland and almost a chore to drink.

On tap at gi clybourn... Pours a darker reddish amber brown hue with a soapy film of milk white head... Banana in the aroma with lighter fruit playing a backing role. Sweeter overall... Flavors are sticky and sugary sweet. Tasted like an extreme take on a wheat beer with a little bitter astringency in the finish. Semi-warming but holds the abv in check to some degree.

Goblet poured draft at the Clybourne brewpub (Chicago, IL). Pours an orangey amber! Light haze, moderate offwhite head that sticks around and laces pretty damn well. Aromas are wheaty malts, cereal with some toffee sweetness, a touch fruity with some darker bits and a bit of booziness. Some grapefruit citrus, caramel come in stronger as it warms a bit. Initial is warming booziness, an imperial wheat throws some bigger but smooth sweetness, toffee and graininess. Hops come in fairly strong but taper down. Citrusy grapefruit and a bit of other fruitiness comes (Pear? Apricot?) In with some warming booziness. Lighter on the palate, delicate with pretty good sweetness and decent hop balance. Finish is warming, sweet, with ok hoppy balance.

GABF 2007. Lots of brown sugar maltiness in the smell. Nice full brown sugar, typical barley-wine sweetness in the mouth, with a hoppy American-style finish. Sugar-drenched golden raisins highligh the middle. It reminds me of Midnight Sun Arctic Devil, but not as big-seeming in the body or the flavors. Classic, and borderline dope.

Draft at Goose Island Clybourn brewpub. A clear dark gold, little head or carbonation. Intense sweet aroma with a fair amount of hops in there as well. Intense sweet flavour. The sweetness dominates, and I want to call it unbalanced, but the more I have of it, the more balanced it seems, as there are a lot of hops and malts. A very big beer.