Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen

Brewed by Pyramid Breweries
Style: Wheat Ale
Portland, Oregon USA

Re-rate 12/20/02: A “Chill Hazed” orange color on the pour with a decent sized head and nice lace to cover the glass. Yeasty hints in the nose, citrus fresh and lightly sweet, the start malt mostly with a middling top. Finish nicely carbonated and a fair to middling hop presence with the appropriately dry lingering aftertaste. Nice beer, not a great beer, but drinkable in its own right.

Just not what I expected. Overmalted and got downright grody after a couple. Looked pretty good and smelled pretty good though. Overall not too bad and not too good.

very hazy & cloudy appearance, bubbly white head that disappeared very quickly, very little by way of aroma, fizzy & medium body, lots of banana flavor, hints of clove or corriander, spicy banana finish

Overall solid Hefeweizen. Refreshing but I didn’t like the sour aftertaste

On tap. Thought this one was pretty good... good crisp flavor with a nice citrus note. The lemon did well to compliment this.

[rerate needed] Murky orange/yellow, darker than most comparable wheats. Smell of a typical american hefeweizen, very yeasty with citrus. Very smooth in the mouth, with emphasis on orange and lemon, and mid-drink it turns to very sweet and syrupy. Finish is like sucking on candy, very moist and syrupy. It reminds me of drinking orange juice or lemon tea.

Bottle. Pours hazy swirly amber with medium slightly off-white head. Nice residual yeast on bottom of bottle. Very mild grain aroma, doughy yeast notes, slight citrus-like scent. Flavor is doughy light bread, a very mild sourness, a tiny bit of floral hops and a touch of bitter flavor- overall very mild and lacking much complexity. Rounded mouthfeel is the best part.

On tap at Kincaid’s in Bloomington, MN. I should note that I had this beer with a lemon slice added, but it was not squeezed. The aroma contains the clean, soapy smell of yeast, cinnamon, and lemon sharpness. It was weak by the standards of the style, and it became a bit pungent as I drank. Pours a cloudy, opaque orange with not enough frothy white head; looks like apricot nectar in the glass. Initial taste is slightly off, a bit macro pale lager-like for some reason. It doesn’t have much of that classic hefeweizen taste (perhaps because it’s really an American wheat). I taste orange and a slight lemon sourness (I don’t think it’s from the lemon slice). There is a bit of hops bitterness, surprisingly. This medium to full-bodied beer is crisp, clean, refreshing, and lively in the palate. The taste improved as I drank despite the fact that the aroma got worse. Like a lot of American wheats, Pyramid Hefeweizen just makes you shrug your shoulders in indifference, especially when not consumed in the summer.