Otter Creek Otter Summer Ale

Brewed by Otter Creek Brewing
Style: Wheat Ale
Middlebury, Vermont USA

Bottle. Gold with a small rapidly vanishing white head. Nose is grainy and malty with light lemon rind and soft yeast. Taste is yeasty and wheat laden with light lemon and soft grassiness. Body is light and crips with mild carbonation. Finishes with more grains, light citrus, and soft yeast notes. Pretty standard American Wheat but very drinkable and refreshing.

Summertime I thought only appropriate to drink a summer beer. Otter Creek’s wheat ale had light body, grassy flavor and citrus finish. My preference was to add a lemon wedge to promote the lemon and downplay the mustiness.

As Bill Belichick loves to say "it is what it is" that is how I approach American wheat beers when compared to there German counterparts they just don’t match up. But for what it is this style is pretty decent. It pours a crystal clear pale yellow with a highly carbonated body that leaves a thin white lace. The aroma is sour, wheat, with a small trace of hops but overall nothing much going on. The taste starts malty, bready in charachter, with a touch of honey sweetness, that ends with that nice wheat twang. The taste continues chewy for such a lite bodied ale and finishes bitter. Overall this is another typical American wheat beer but it satisfies that summer thirst.

Bottle from Super Saver. Pale gold pour with aroma of slight hopcitrus, lime, pale malt. Tastes citrusy, limey, with some pale malt. The taste is unblanaced and rather off-putting in this. It finished crisp and fairly smooth, but it has an unrefined aspect to it which I didn’t enjoy.

Bottle (12oz). Oh, goodie, another american wheat. hazy light gold with a decent white fizzy lasting head. Not much aroma - sugary and papery, maybe a bit of cheap grain and yeast. Taste is metal, carboard, grain and something harsh - nasty aftertaste, Weak fizzy mouthfeel - another lame-o "american wheat." Spare me.

From a 12 oz. twist cap long neck brown bottle with a bottled on date, 04/25/06 LOT#1903. Poured an ever so hazy golden yellow with a foamy white head that settled into a thin sudsy lacing. Had a nose of grain husks, a light citrus rind and dry, stale biscuits. Good carbonation and a crisp, smooth lightish medium bodied mouthfeel. Unpleasant tasting, a strange husky flavor mixed with a herbal hoppiness, a sour fruitiness from the wheat malts and a dry biscuity finish with a lingering huskiness in the palate, the taste ruins the drinkability for me. I won’t be trying this again, a disappointing wheat beer.

the label is ’Otter Summerale, and does not mention being a wheat beer. I’m asuming this is the same as the summerwheat as on thier website this is the only summer beer. I found it crisp, ctrusy, nicely yellow color, went down veery fast. An outstanding brew for a picnic.

Clear gold with a quickly fading head. The aroma is light bit of lemon. The flavor is pretty boring. Slightly papery.