Three Floyds Gumballhead

Brewed by Three Floyds Brewing Company
Style: Wheat Ale
Munster, Indiana USA

January 2008. Bottle from last year. Golden yellow body with a small white head. Hoppy aroma of grapefruit with very light resin. Lots of grapefruit citrus in the flavour, but a lot less than last time. (7+) Average palate. Excellent quaffable brew, but obviously time has diminished it somewhat. 7/3/7+/3/16 - 3.7 <P>August 2004. Nice golden body with a smallish head. Some haze and floaties. Big grapefruit aroma with a lemony undercurrent. Hops are pleasantly dominant in the flavour, leaving a long lingering hoppy aftertaste. Bit of green pellety notes in the finish. Palate is a touch light but appropriate to the beer. Not at all what I expected, but delicious nonetheless. Thanks for the trade Joey_Capps 9/3/9/3/16 - 4.0

Draft at the Brewery. This brew pours a small head of fine to medium sized white bubbles and a weak whaet yellow body. It had a mild malt-hop aroma. Its flavor contained the typical 3 Floyds hop bite that is strong initailly yet softens in the finish. Bottle: This brew poured a small head of frothy finely sized mostly lasting bubbles that left behind a fair lacing. The body was a carbonated transparent orange color with a few yeast particles floating in it. The aroma was floral and hoppy. The mouth feel was initially tingly with a hop presence and finished with a smooth hoppy aftertaste. The flavor contained notes of hoops malt and mild caramel.

Bottle. Pours a hazy body with a white head. Wheat notes; citrus, coriander, lemon grass, and pepper notes. Spicy hints of ginger and pepper tones. Sweet and slightly chewy with a light fruit y finish. Good brew.

Stilll and clear with a orange-yellow hue and a standing white pillowtop. Hoppiness in the aroma made me double-check the label that said "wheat beer", but alas there they are! What an interesting mix here ... fruity hopiness, yet with mellow underpinnings and no bitterness. This is superb.

Poured a golden color with a small white head and some lacing. Sticky sweet hop, some lemon, and wheat aroma. Citrus and bitter hops, balanced nicely by a sweetness and the wheat. This is one of my favorite wheat beers!

Light amber color with little head. Spicy wheat aroma. Fairly sour taste along with the expected wheat. Much drier than I would think for this beer. It didn’t really impress me; different is not always better.

2004 bottle. Pours a moderately deep copper-orange with some light red tints, must be from the wheat. Good off-white head, mostly disipating. Slight haze from the yeast injection, but quite filtered other than that. Aroma of light citrus, from the dominant amarillo hops. Light nectarine, tangerine and honey notes as well as a dry wheatiness. Flavor starts out with light grapefruit, sweet and succulent fresh hops, plenty of light malt sweetness. Great amount of hard red wheat flavor on the finish, with tons of grassy tones. The malt is tremendously well represented, creating a wonderful backbone to match the loads of amarillos in here. Finish is wheaty, grassy and lightly bitter, mostly dry. Medium to medium-full body, with some thinning as it warms. Yeast apparency is very low and while everything else in this beer screams #1 american wheat beer I’ve tried, ultimately Bell’s Oberon imparts an aggressive yeastiness that adds another layer of complexity, lacking in the gumbalhead. Granted Oberon uses a German yeast, so it is a partially-unfair comparison. But yeast or no yeast, the highly unfiltered nature of Oberon in the bottle puts it a notch above Gumbalhead.

(650 ml bottle) A bit shady golden color, white head. Hoppy bitter scent, sweet, orange stuffed with cloves. A bit of yeast. Hoppy and bitter taste with some "X-mass" spices like pommerance peels and cloves. Rather high bitterness. Wouldn’t guess it for a wheat beer at all. Rather nice if you disregard the lack of "wheat style" in it though.