Middle Ages 11th Anniversary Double Wheat

Brewed by Middle Ages Brewing
Style: Wheat Ale
Syracuse, New York USA

Thanks to egajdzis for this... Appears a hazy light gold with a small white head. Scattered streaks of lacing are left around the glass. Smell is of orange zest, pepper, and fruity, doughy ale yeast. Taste is of the same with a mild bit of butter detected. Surprised? I’m not! There’s also something in this that is remeniscent to an unsettling cough syrup in the mix. Mouthfeel is bitter with too much yeast presence. It’s fruity, thin, with the sugary, syrup up front and finishing with a dry, yeastyness. ABV is also evident in this.

Poured a lightly hazy, golden color with a medium sized, white head that left light lacing on the glass. Aroma of pine sol, citrus, some banana, and buttercream. Taste of sweet honey, citrus, orange peel, black pepper, and a dry wheaty finish. Strong alcohol.

Difficult to rate for sure. Clear orange body with a fairly large head. Good lacing and head retention. Aroma is a huge wallop of their yeast/house character. Got very minor wheaty notes, but interestingly this came off as pretty hoppy. Got the grapefruity piney hops and all of that. Slick mouthfeel with some alcohol and a fairly big body. Flavor was enjoyable, got better as the bottle emptied.. but a wheat? A double wheat?????? Wheat notes were pretty minor. Reminded me of the 3F "wheat" beer except this one is loaded with their house character yeast, which I am not a huge fan of.

Tried a small sample of this and it was okay. I don’t think the beer makes up its mind on what style it wants to be. Tasted more like a pale ale than a wheat to me.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow, jerc, mds & tupalev -- courtesy of HogTownHarry. Pours a slightly hazy golden-orange with a good size lasting white head. I like that aroma! Hoppy and wheaty along with spices, fruit, caramel malt and some sugary sweetness. Though the flavour is similar, it’s a bit of a letdown, it starts off too boozy making it somewhat unbalanced. Dry finish, medium bodied. It’s pretty good but in the end the flavour was just too boozy, it tasted more than 8.5% to me -- if they could balance that out a bit more it would make for a much more pleasant Wheat beer.

Pour is hazy mellon color with a thin creamy head and lacing. Aroma is fruity and actually pretty attractive. A little alcohol and maybe even a touch of wheat. Flavor is a bti grassy a bit sweet. Overall better than I thought it would be. Pretty smooth and well blended body. The finiish has a dry center with touches of sweetness on the edges.

2006 bomber, drunk on 8/23/06.
Sweet, it’s unfiltered. That is usually a great indicator of good things to come from Middle Ages, as these guys are fantastic brewers (they just filter and pasteurize most everything). Plenty of sediment lies on the bottom, while a moderately hazy, bronzed-straw colored body with almost a lemon-lime tint, sits below a large, mostly-well retained head that produces moderate lacing as it recedes (though it does recede fairly quickly to cover).
Simcoe hops in the nose are bitter, dry and very crisp, working well with the dry wheat and pale malts. Lots of lime zest, light lychee, white grapefruit and of course, sticky pine. But the wheat in the background, along with some very honeyish barley, is able to balance, though does not diminish the crispness of the aroma. Simcoe fades, somewhat, on the finish, allowing something of a lighter hop (noble hop variety??) to grant a lightly herbal, flowery note. Lime and lemon notes lie in the background throughout the course of the aroma.
Simcoe again, in the flavor, but not brash and dominating from the start. Rather, a honey and lightly grainy malt character is established, with smooth, chewy wheat and the simcoe gradually making a crescendo, climaxing towards the end, with a lip-smacking, slightly tongue curling bitterness. Almost a bit of tartness even, with citrus fruits being thrown in to cut the pine. Soft, frothy texture, supportive from the wheat and ample malt. Wonderful attenuation level, dry, but leaving enough sugar to balance. Moderate, tight carbonation. Some definite mineral influence from the yeast, but no diacetyl. The more it warms, the more the hop bouquet varies, with herbal-flowery notes adding a refreshing acidity and flavor.
I’m really glad TAR kept harping on the merits of this brewery, else I wouldn’t have experienced some true gems they produce (such as this).

Bottle courtesy of Hogtownharry: Poured a hazy medium dark beige color beer with a small slightly off white head with average retention. Aroma of wheat is interesting but doesn’t mix well with the hops variety that is used in this beer. Taste is covered up by some weird hops and wheat is not dominant. I think I just don’t get this one – I would rather have a nice German hefeweizen over this.