Terrapin Merlot Cask SunRay

Brewed by Terrapin Beer Company
Style: Wheat Ale
Athens, Georgia USA

Cask: Pours a hazy pale yellow color with a thing white head. Aroma is yeasty, clove, some wine, oak, and banana. Flavor is clove, yeast, some wine notes, touch of oak, banana, and a slightly spicy finish.

Cask at Ravenous Pig. I can barely remember this one, not because I have a bad memory, but because it barely tasted like anything. Poured a nice yellow color, smelled great. But when I went to drink it, all I got was musty nothingness. Couldn’t taste the wine in it. Moved on to Inda Brown Ale to rectify the lack of taste.

cask at Ravenous Pig for the Terrapin/Stone beer dinner. Banana and clove on the nose. Pours a cloudy yellow gold with light carbonation. The flavor has a lot of banana and citrus with some vanilla, with feint fruitiness in the background.

Cask at Ravenous Pig, courtesy Larry and the Terrapin guys. Pours a hazy, light, golden-orange color with a minimal, off-white film and no lace. The aroma shows ripe banana, fresh wheat, light clove and hints of oak. As it warms, a glimmer of wine comes through. Flavors are very similar, traditional hefeweizen notes of spiced banana and mild wheat showing most prominently. I tried really hard to get the Merlot out of it, but all I got was a bit of vanilla from the oak. Thin to medium bodied with very little carbonation. Pleasant enough and certainly sessionable, but it really isn’t anything more than a pretty standard wheat beer.

Had this at the Ravenous Pig after the Stone Terrapin dinner. Pours very light lemonade color, no carbonation no head. Aroma of wine barrel, merlot but very light. Flavor shows no real wine characteristics, very thin and slightly sweat malt flavor. Sounded like a great idea, but didn’t really follow through.