Telegraph Reserve Sour Wheat

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

Bottled on 1/12/2009. The beer pours to a really hazy pale straw body with a nice dense white head and ridiculous lacing. The aroma is tart wheat and lemons with a lightly funky yeast and very unique complex lemons. The flavor is really complex and superb. Lemons meets tart wheat. It’s funky but not overly so. Such subtlety in this beer. The palate is crisp and carbonated but not too vibrant. A perfect summer beer. I wish I’d have bough more!

Thanks to Blake for bringing the 750, bottled on my B-day, 2009. Poured cloudy medium golden with a well-formed cap of white head. The aroma picked up sour lemon zest, earthy spices, and dry Brett funkage over a soft bready base.. balance was spot-on, and I could sit here and smell it all day. The flavor was also on point with pale malts supporting zesty, bright, funky, and ultimately refreshing character of lemon rind, fragrant floral, and funky Brett around.. refreshing as well on the long finish with ample acidity and excellent flavors. Lighter-bodied, crisp, and funky on the palate with a long finish.. this was absolutely delightful!

Pale gold with a frothy white head. Slightly sour and lemony aromas. Medium body with frothy carbonation. Flavor is wheat and citrus/lemon; mildly sour. Good stuff. Finishes just a bit papery.

Bottled January 2009; Sampled April 2009
A fairly soft pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a three finger thick, pale, just off-white colored head. The beer is a pale gold color that shows a lightly hazed, straw-gold color with a white sheen to it when held up to the light. The aroma smells of grassy grain up front, this is followed by a light tartness and the finish has a sweet, lemon verbena not that is soft but distinct. Crushed whole grain cracker notes form a solid wheat signature in the aroma, though I was expecting this to smell more sour and / or funky. The herbal character is nice with its lemon focused finish.

The beer is tart, though not aggressively so, but it is enough sourness to be quite refreshing. Pretty much bone dry, but there is a perception of lemon zest towards the finish that seems to add a suggestion of sweetness. The carbonation adds quite a bit of fizzy effervescence to this brew as it dances across the tongue and it also adds a pepper-like spiciness to the finish. The beer is also quite light bodied; it is really quite refreshing, even if a little gassy at times. The grain does not play as big a role in the flavor as it does in the aroma, but there are still some flavors of hay, some saltine cracker notes in the finish and a bit of an earthy grain note.

A bit more simplistic than I was expecting, the Brettanomyces character is really quite muted at this time; this would have been a welcome boost to the complexity of this brew and perhaps this will develop a bit more with time. If the yeast character was a bit more interesting I would almost call this a great example of a Saison (though it does lean a bit more towards a clean Berliner Weiss); it is light and refreshing and the lactic character adds a nice touch but is not overwhelming.

750ml from the mighty Odeed - thanks, Jake! Hazy straw-colored pour, with some fairly lively carbonation and pretty good retention. The nose is very fragrant, with soft floral notes blending with the sharp citrus and yeast funk. Far more yeasty than other Berliners I’ve had, which tend towards the more mouth-puckering. Nice full mouthfeel, allowing some of the earthy depth to come through, and a pleasant finish.

Bottle thanks to BMan1113VR. The look is clear, yellow straw color, and has a decent off white head. The smell is lemon, wheat, slight tartness. The taste is tart, wheat, citrus, and some dryness.

750ml bottle acquired in trade with WeeHeavySD (thanks!). Bottle labled bottled on 1/12/09. Poured a medium and hazy yellow color with a smaller sized white head. Aromas of wheat, cereal, and lighter citrus. Tastes of citrus, wheatiness, cereal, and lighter spices. Lighter tart finish.

750mL, courtesy of juiceisloose. Faint head topping a fairly common pale wheat, hazed body. The biggesst drawback in the nose was quite a bit of sulphur. Otherwise tart and acidic, a lot of crisp wheat, some pepper. Smooth tart wheat flavor, melded very well, some spiciness later in the palate, with pepper evident as well. Nice smooth carbonation, acidic and drying without being prickly.