McNeills Wheat Wright

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: Wheat Ale
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Lightly clouded golden color with a medium sized, tight and creamy head with nice lacing on the glass. Crisp and dry grainy wheat taste. Very biscuity and doughy taste, light lemony citrus, average mouthfeel. very refreshing, but thats about it.

Cloudy maize in color. Heavily particulate with a frothy head and excellent lacing. Cereal and celery in nose. Medium-bodied with a gritty mouthfeel. Smooth and thick with no bitterness to speak of. Crisp finish, similar to apple cider. Closer to a wit than a hefe, but fitting neither profile very well. Bitter finish. Strange, but not bad.

Pours a slightly cloudy golden yellow, with a copious frothy head. Aroma is very american, with little esteriness, and a sort of crisp feel. Flavor is light and dry. Slight yeastiness, with very little esters, besides a strange kiwi fruit flavor. Odd. Sort of bland, like american wheat tends to be.

Cookie fruity nose. Light golden color. Starts with a light grainy malt taste, then finishes with a familiar Mcneills bitterness. I'm not a big wheat drinker,but certainly a good summer ale. Not a classic wheat.

For me, probably McNeills least impressive beer, but I live near High Point and Ramstein is among the Worlds class. This is filtered and I don’t usually like that, but it may be the worlds best plain light beer.

July 2001: Had this at McNeills brewpub in Brattleboro the other night on a little trip through S. New England that was partly about collecting beer experiences. Thanks for the Yankee Spirits rec, VENOM! Anyway, the brewpub is nothing much, though they have good nachos, but the prices are way cheap (compared to what I’m used to) and I counted 15 McNeills on tap, 3 or 4 of which I hadn’t had. This one is a bit of a disappointment, average wheat beer that seems a bit agressive and bitter to me. Looks more like a lager on draft and has little in the nose. Still, even the best brewers aren’t perfect.

June 2003: more of the same, sadly; this sample (bottled, bomber) has very little head (not much of a pop on the cap), again looks like a lager and is quite bitter and almost wholly lacking in "wheat beer" characteristics; little phenolic character, no lemon, no spiciness. Really big letdown from this greatest of New England brewers. Stick to the English styles, Ray. 4/2/4/3/8 2.1

August 05: 22 oz bottle, I think fairly fresh. Huge frothy head dies very quickly atop the burnished gold body...soapy/sourish nose offers little promise though hints of fruit and sourdough creep in...malty, clean body is a surprise, much more pleasant than I remember, quaffable and fairly refreshing, at least until the somewhat metallic, very bitter attack at the end. Better than the batch 2 years ago, but still rather a mystery, not really to style and not really recommendable.

A crisp, summertime wheat beer, with little head. Nice nutty-like wheat nose and notes.