New Glarus Black Wheat

Brewed by New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: Dunkelweizen
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

Pours a dark black. Aroma is strong and interesting. I can smell the bananas and cloves, but yet I also detect a rye smell. Very creamy on the palate. Flavor is chocolate, nutty, with hints of cloves and banana. This is definitely interesting, not my favorite, but not bad. Thanks wawood for getting me one!

Nose-banana and cream. Translucent hazy brown body. Taste-banana, cream, cloves. Tastes like liquid banana pudding. IMO, the malt and hops on this is good, but they need to use a bifferent yeast strain. But that’s just me.

Thanks to footbalm for this awesome sample. Pours Brown and murky with an off white head. Smells peppery with some nice clove, fig, allspice, cinnamon, mace and nutmeg present. Tastes of bananas, pears, and peppery with a nice mouthfeel and sweet finish.

Nuts & grains with some chocolate and coffee notes. Large tan tight bubble head. Dark brown, opaque. Decent head retention. At first sip this seemed more like a nut brown than a wheat beer. But at second sip, the banana, wheat and clove come through. Very nice and smooth. Some lace, but it forms mostly on the sip side of the glass and doesn’t stick very well. Doesn’t taste overly alcoholic at all. Wish it was a little richer, but all styles are not created equal. Very well made. Thanks Robertsreality for hooking me up with this one.

Thanks to hopdog for the trade... Appears a murky black with a 2 finger tan head that lasts for a minute. Tiny spots of lace that slowly slide. Smell is of chocolate and caramel malts, banana, wheat, clove, and a touch of candied apples. Taste is of the same wonderful aromas mixing well for a delightful taste. Mouthfeel is full bodied, smooth, yeasty, and slightly sweet. Drinkability-I really enjoyed this one. Very drinkable and authentic to the style. One of the best American versions I’ve had.

(12 oz bottles: Obtained in trades with goldtwins and IMtheOptimator, thanks Larry and Andrew!) Okay, one word. WOW! I need to collect my thoughts before I continue writing because all I can say is, "WOW!" I guess I’ll start with the appearance of this amazing beer. It pours a very dark brown similar to walnut, but with a slight ruddiness near the edges. It should go without saying that this beer is fully opaque through the center of the glass, but because I can clearly see the significant cloudiness at the edges, this beer is opaque even there. The tan head pours tall and firm, and with the bubbles being very small, it takes many minutes before it settles down to a thin layer, and then it holds there. The aroma is absolutely incredible. Roasted coffee, rich and sweet dark malts, and in less abundance, some banana and vanilla. Damn, I can sit here all night and just keep sniffing this beer. But that would be a tragedy because then the beer would warm up and go flat, and with how super this beer tastes, I can’t allow that to happen. I must lick every last drop of this incredible beer out of the glass. Roasty, malty, very sweet, smoky, lots of banana and yeast. Eructations are mostly banana. But as sweet as this beer it, there is a slight touch of tartness in the finish that partially offsets the sweetness. Full bodied without a doubt, thick and somewhat syrupy, and it retains this fullness right through to the finish. Solid carbonation helps to keep the beer from cloying, though I still think you really need a sweet tooth to fully enjoy this beer. I think with just a touch more tartness, it would be more effective at offsetting the sweetness, and the beer would be even more enjoyable, and more lively on the palate. And after all this, I still find myself going back to that one word. WOW!

Bottle: Dirty opaque Brown with amber highlight, medium tan head with good retention. The aroma is esters, chocolate, grass, burnt and roast essence. We didn’t have the computer handy at the tasting and for some reason nobody was sure what this was, but dunkelweizen was the suspect due to the esters and obvious use of wheat. The taste is moderate esters, chocolate, roasted malt, wheat, yeast (reminds me of Weihenstephan), and a touch of pepper. Medium-full bodied, moderate carbonation, very well balanced both in complexity and bitterness.

Pours the deepest, murkiest orange-fringed brown that I’ve ever seen a lager pour. Topped gloriously with a noble diminishing root-beer head of chocolate white. Aroma is a SUPER lemon blast, over hexane and a hint of clove. A background of running yeast. Wow, blast of coffee and dry choco powder. Not expected. Morphs into a typically fruity run. These characters are all well balanced and sweet, with a touch of hops finish. Extremely interesting, drinkable, and not overwhelmed by any one characteristic. Hard to describe. Amazing.