Ramstein Classic

Brewed by High Point Brewing Company
Style: Dunkelweizen
Butler, New Jersey USA

Moderate head of taupe bubbles. Brown colored liquid with a umber hues when held to the light. Heavily toasted malt, cortland apple peel and light clove scents. A dunkelweizen aroma, but with not much pizazz. Dark toasted malt and wheat flavors. German chocolate also creeps in. Not much spice or hops flavors detected. A touch of light pepper in the finish. Linger is dry and quite uneventful.

THOUGHTS: I was very surprised to find out this "classic" wheat beer was a dunkelweizen. Nice beer, but not the best dunkelweizen. It’s a little too sweet for the style. It’s almost like a cross between a sweet stout and a dunkelweizen. But it did get a little more dunkelweizen-like as it warmed. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a dark brown with reddish amber highlights and an average, light tan head that mostly diminished. The aroma was cocoa powder, light to moderate yeast, some spiciness and a little sourness. The initial flavor was moderate to heavily sweet and lightly acidic; while the finish was moderately sweet, lightly acidic and bitter, and sour with an average duration. There was cocoa powder, sour wheat and then just a little hops. The medium body was like watery syrup and sticky on the lips with fizzy carbonation and a light astringent and slightly chalky finish.

To me, this beer is about the balance that wheat beers tend to lack. Instead of being all sour, yellow, and weak, this beer is about playing sour malted wheat flavors against almost british-style malty sweetness (which is suggested by its dark brown color). My favorite wheat beer ever!

Poured from a 12oz bottle to a dark brown color with a nice tan head.Aromas were of rosted malt and caramel.The taste was of banana,wheat.spice,and light citrus.Pretty good Dunkel.

I had a 12 ounce bottle a couple of weeks past the freshness date, and that probably has something to do with the rating I am giving it. A dark, foamy pour with a big, bubbly head. Simple, European-style label. This has an unpleasant macrobrew aroma of yeast and cooked vegetables. The flavor is crisp, sour, and a little funky - similar to a homebrew. Citrus and wheat are present. It is not hoppy, but it is more robust than smooth. This rustic brew is unspectacular, but worth a try.

The color was deep brown. The head was creamy, thin, and light beige. The aroma was spicy, sweet, and had a plastic/phenloic smell. The flavor was bland, some spice, and slightly tart. The palate was thin. The finish was abrupt.

Thanks hophead75. Pours a still dark brown with ruby notes. Head is about a finger thick creamy tan. Banana in the nose, sweet, lightly spicy, a bit sour, chocolatey. the flavor has banana, wheaty, a bit weak. Sweet, some chocolate. Decent finish and no carbonation. Wheaty banana finish.

Pours weakly producing no head, which is an asset more necessary for this style than others. Deep garnet brown appearance, and completely still. Aroma of chocolate candies, cotton candy, pasty esters, really heavyhanded phenolic tanginess. Swirling yields a morose stink of chloraseptic, clove imbued butter and butterscotch, and green apple. A wisp of misplaced sterile cheesiness. Hard to point to a blatant infection or bottling issue here though; more likely just a less than ideal batch.

Thin flavored chocolate clove water. Banana and walnut. Lots of normalcy and promising richness, diluted and offered weakly. Maple hazelnuts, brown spices. Cloying bubblegum sweetness. Clinging citrus acids lend some bitterness with a cleansing dishsoap effect alongside a refreshing lemon tart in the mid palate. Texture is watery with a weak sparkle; somewhat muddy and sweaty throughout, finishing on some musty fruit, boot sweat, and cardboard. Weird experience in the sense that my perception of this brewery is one of an exceptional German-style ale and lager producer, but this example just seems really haphazard and rough at every turn, rather than buried beneath one obvious flaw, while several of them are quite conspicuously apparent. Yet, indiscerably, enjoyable somehow. Thanks Andrew!