Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat

Brewed by Long Trail Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Bridgewater Corners, Vermont USA

12 oz bottle. Extremely pale golden colour, thin fast-fading white head. Sweet candyish aroma, blackberry/blueberry with a bit of lemony citrus. Reminds of blueberry Kool-Aid which isn’t really a good thing. Thin-bodied, very dry and bland. Flavoured water more than beer. This is to lambic as an Ikea desk is to a tree.

Bière d’un jaune clair un peu pâlot. Peu de mousse. Fines bulles qui se font nombreuses. On sent un peu le bleuet au nez ainsi que la coriandre. Effervescente à l’attaque, très mince en bouche. Sèche en finale. Ne goûte pas du tout le bleuet et donne le sentiment d’être diluée avec de l’eau...

(12oz bottle) Crystal clear straw body with small white head. Aroma is medium sweet, blackberry/raspberry, light talc, syrup. Taste is medium sweet, some berry, grain, vegetal. Light body.

Bottled on 3/13/06 and drunk on 4/23/06
Unripe apricot skin colored body is crystal clear, finely filtered and full of large, vigorous bubbles creating a foamy white head that is retained probably due to a mix of wheat being used and through so much carbonation, but mostly because of the carbonation, I would guess. It eventually fades to ring, leaving some spots of lace.
Aroma is dull, grainy-mineral-like, with metal (steel, copper, brass), some iron, chalk and a touch of blackberry essence. No substantial malt, not even very wheat-like. Just dull, bland and metallic, with some light corn-like notes.
The flavor is an insipidly sweet, unwavering blackberry sweetness, with some drying on the end, but with such heavily filtered a texture as to remove any substance or anything to comfort the palate. Grainy, dry malts taste of barley, toast, hay and no hops or yeast are noticeable. Blackberry flavor is moderately authentic, but just sticks out like a sore thumb, building up on the palate, with nothing else in the flavor to balance. Obnoxiously high, forced carbonation harries the palate and the beer ends watery and dull. Can’t drink more than a 3 or 4 sips.

Poured from bottle. Wheat aroma with faint berry smell. really no hint of berry in the flavor. But the sourness of the berry is definitely noticed, and it sort of cancels out any wheat. But what I really liked about this one was its clean, pristine feel. Very refreshing. Finished well. I will save the rest of these for the summer.

At first taste this was awful. It tasted exactly like Sea Dog Blueberry Wheat, which I find to be awful. Then, as I drank more, I warmed up to it. It still isn’t an award winner, but it is thoroughly drinkable. On the negative side, there is a bit of a corn/rice adjunct flavor. The wheat generally overcomes this and leaves a nice clean, dry impression. The only other factor is the blackberries, which manage to remain very subtle, yet lend a nice sweetness to the whole flavor. I still do get a bit of that hollow seltzer flavor that reminded me of the Sea Dog. Regardless, this is a decent summer swiler. I’d easily put down a sixer at the beach.

Crystal clear golden body topped by a medium thick quickly disappearing white head with little lace. Sweet and Fruity (blackberries, of course) aroma with little other character. Slightly sweet yet bitter and sour flavor with a touch of berry. Bery thin bodied and dry. Smells much better than it tastes.

12oz bottle. Clear golden. Strong wafting blackberry nose. Minimal ring of white head. Nothing but blackberries in the nose. Sweet smooth and crisp. Zesty and lively. 7-up effervescence. Syrupy sweet.