Walldorff Cinnamon Spiced Cranberry-Cherry Wheat

Brewed by Walldorff Brewpub & Bistro
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Hastings, Michigan USA

22oz Bottle. 2007Curt cinnamon roll nose. Fruit paste mingles with fruitcake and cinnamon Christmas cookies. Pours a lightly hazed peach, with a thin rim of white. Not much head retention. Flavor is a cinnamon roll, with light fruit glaze. Cinnamon dominates in a real doughy way. Dry. No wheat. And the fruit is extremely subliminal. Light off malt character. Low alcohol profile. Clean, but overpowered by a cassia dust. Tastes like I’m an airport near a Cinnabon. It’s a good cinnamon flavor, but leaves the beer with some one dimensionality. It’s amazing how the fruity malt sugars that linger transform into bun glazing with this level of cinnamon. There’s just too much going on here. It would probably be really good as just a cinnamon beer, or just a cranberry beer (which some of the skins do show through). But, as a Spice-Fruit-Wheat beer, it’s a little confused. It is clean, fresh, dry and not overwhelming in terms of spice magnitude, which really sets it apart from other potpourri-tasting Christmas beers. So, compliments for that. A fun idea. Thanks Sean!

22oz Bottle. 2008. Thanks Sean! Mulled cider, wet wine, and sweet ginger tea grace the aroma, blended with a little mixed indian spice and some pappadums. Bright and lively. Like a dark and stormy. Pours a clear russet amber, with golden fringes and a whitish head. Thinnish flavor brushes with fresh cinnamon cookies, almond paste, cinnamon bread, grated cassia and a touch of pastitsio. Cinnamon overrides cranberry with a light sweet alcohol nip. Some sweet potatoe pudding finds a home amongst marshmallows. A slight bitter, metallic tanginess throws this one off in the back end. Interesting, but not deep. Clean and unoffensive for a spiced fruit beer.