Telegraph Reserve Sour Wheat

Brewed by Telegraph Brewing Company
Style: Berliner Weisse
Santa Barbara, California USA

Telegraph sour wheat bvc wheaty with some tartness and lemon notes. Light yellow pour with a nice fluffy head. Largely carbonated wheat with good lemon notes. Vert quenching and crisp. Not too sour or tart, but really pleasant lactic maybe. 7 4 8 4 15

Interesting beer. Slight lemon aroma. Sour but not overpoweringly so. Mixed reactions from those who taste it.

750ml bottle courtesy of CaptainCougar at the DC Local Gathering. Light golden yellow color. Lacy, patchy head. Funky tart citrus and wheat flavors. Some wild yeast tastes, and some nice yeasty complexities. Quite enjoyable, smooth but flavorful. Lemony, earthy, but smooth and subtle as well.

Corked and caged 750ml bottle sampled at a DC Local gathering thanks to CaptainCougar. Pours a transparent, straw gold with a thin, ringing white head. Sour aroma of perfume and grass. Flavor is the same with light lemon. Thin and watery, not as puckering as you’d expect.

She poured a hazy, blanched straw into my glass with a billowing cloud of white foam. She is quite the treasure, and lingers long into the finish. Her hazy white hue is spot on, and the tart, zesty, puckering nose that follows immediately behind is exactly what I would expect from an authentic Berliner Weiss. In Germany, it would not be uncommon to have it spiked with a fruit or herbal extract to take the edge off her sour bite, but I like my sour, so hold the extract please. Candied sugar much like one would find coating the outside of a sour lemon drop leads into a hard sour candy inside. Tart peaches, tangerines, and nectarines all on the verge of ripeness, but not quite. Crunchy acidic skins are included, of course. There is a touch of soft wet hay that billows in the background, but always as an afterthought. Mm… now that my olfactory senses have been satiated, tis time to quench the thirst. Bright, zippy, zesty, and full of the sour spice of life. Sugar-coated lemon drops, crunchy un-ripened peaches, nectarines, and tangerines dance atop my tastebuds while a soft undercurrent of creamy wheat keeps her true to her origins. The top of my tongue continues to tingle and tickle long after each quaff. I imagine myself in a field blooming with spring, sun shining down on my face, and a glass of tart, playful Reserve Wheat Ale Berliner Weiss in my hands. Bliss. Tight, pin-point carbonation holds all her flavors together as a touch of soft banana starts to peak through in the finish. Key lime joins the fray and a full blown party is in the works. Refreshing, invigorating, and exactly what I was hoping for.

A minimal thanks to history is possibly due, but even more importantly, thank you Telegraph Brewing Company for giving me a little taste of a German tradition with your Reserve Wheat Ale Berliner Weiss. May I have another, please?

The pour is a completely hazy golden/straw color. It is perfectly hazy yet a light color and full of light. Aroma is a very stinky straw with some lacto, (light stinky cheese). There is also a strong salty/earthy mineral twang all over the place. Flavor is that salty earth as well, tartness all over and a weak wheat behind it all. Has a spritzy, sparkling mouthfeel. A perfect Berliner Weisse, not sure why it is labeled a sour ale.
750mL cork and wire, bottled on 01/12/09, Duvel tasting glass.

Bottle courtesy of BMan1113VR. Pours a hazy amber with a lasting white head. Smells of lactic acid, tarte, wheat, grassy. Tastes tarte and lacti with a refreshing lemony citric finish. I’d drink this all summer if I had access.

On tap at the stone sour ale fest 09. An interesting sour, definitely wheat. Hazy straw color, white head. Sour apple, light funky leather, wheat, bread, lemon, grass, and tartness. Not really fruity like other sours, but more breadiness and wheat, but still sour. I enjoyed it.