Left Hand Haystack Wheat

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: German Hefeweizen
Longmont, Colorado USA

In the bottle. Pours a dark golden cloudy color with a creamy thick head. Yeasty and ester-filled aroma. I get lots of spices in the aroma. Flavor also has a lot of spices and this separates it from its German counterparts. Thick mouthfeel. A satisfying beer.

One bottle from BOTW. Poured a very large head that took it’s time to dissipate. The usual straw yellow color with plenty of sediment at the bottom of the bottle that slowly drifted to the bottom of my Weisbier glass. Aroma of yeast,clove and banana as well as in the flavor. It was alright but I’ve enjoyed most every German Weisbier more than this.

Bottle. Pours a hazy amber with a huge creamy white head that was lasting. Average citrus wheat aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture. Moderate sweet wheat flavor with an average finish.

(12 oz bottle: Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) Bottled on 10-Aug-05. Hey, now this Haystack Wheat is a really nice surprise. Sensual aromas of banana and clove keep me on Cloud 9 as I wait for the head to die down. And wait I must do because it’s taken me a few minutes to pour this beer because my first attempt at the pour yielded about three inches of bubbly white foam. But I’ve finally gotten the entire beer poured and it seems to be holding steady at about a quarter inch. The color is in the banana-straw range and is very cloudy from the yeast sediment I swirled in from the bottle. Man, every time I try to take a sip, I pause to take in that magnificent aroma again. But unfortunately, the flavor just misses the high mark set by the nose. Yes, there is plenty of banana and spices, plus a pretty solid wheat base, a moderate sweetness and a mild bitterness, but this beer is less flavorful than it is aromatic, and the flavor definitely trails off a bit too much in the finish. But otherwise, the flavor is very enjoyable. Body is medium with soft carbonation for a smooth and pleasant initial mouthfeel that goes a bit limp in the finish. Even as I take the final sip from the glass, there is still a considerable amount of foam left in the glass, and large patches of lace have remained on the glass. So aside from the weak finish, this is quite a nice beer, one that I’m likely to buy again.

Bottle labeled as Left Hand Haystack Wheat. This was a pleasant surprise, I was expecting a boring american wheat but encountered a very well balanced and drinkable german hefe, with just the right amount of banana/spice esters and body for the style. Not usually a fan of the style, this is certainly the best example i’ve tried.

Tap at My Brother’s Bar, Denver. Pours a cloudy and well-carbonated yellow. Aroma is bubblegum and banana. Flavor has a nice clove start with an herbal banana finish. Palate is slippery. Good beer.

I tried this one yesterday and was very pleasantly surprised. The pour was very carbonated but in line with the style. The color was a hazy golden which highlighted the unfiltered, bottled conditioning. Cloves jumped out of the fairly complex aroma for the style. It was a very refreshing taste and didn’t have a heavy-handed citrus flavor. This would be an excellent summer drink.

First thing I noticed about this beer was ALOT of carbonation. Pours a pretty clear (for a hefeweiss) yellow/orange with a big head. Flavors are what you would expect for a hefeweiss, banana and yeast. They arent too strong or complex though. Mouthfeel is a bit watery as well. This is decent, but there are much better beers of the same style to be had.