Wells Banana Bread Beer (Bottle)

Brewed by Wells & Youngs
Style: English Strong Ale
Bedford, England

A: A nice deep golden yellow color with a head that starts out pretty large in my Granville Island Brewing mug before settling down nicely just over a finger in size. There is minimal lacing, and lots of bubbles rushing to the top. S: Not real strong. To be honest I was expecting a rush of banana from this one. There is mostly a subdued malty aroma with just a hint of banana. I was hoping for some spice as well. I know the banana bread the wife makes sure has a wonderful spicy aroma that seems to be married to the bananas. T: I actually like this one. Probably more than most other reviewers. It certainly has a taste of banana, but I wish it was a little more forward here. If they could have brought out the banana more and added some cinnamon and or nutmeg, It would have easily been a 4.5. They went a little over the top on the hops which in my opinion kind of competes with the wonderful banana taste that is trying to come thru. Nonetheless it’s a pretty good tasting beer. M: This one is a light bodied beer that is very carbonated.

Thanks to Leif for the 500ml bottle. Deep, dark amber body with just a tiny little head, but with firm lacing. Smell of sweet banana bread. More sweet, and late, banana in flavour – more or less like drinking banana split. Some malts to the aftertaste. Dry ending. Medium bodied. Way too sweet, a half-bottle was just enough (shared with Finn, Tromsø 01.12.2009).

Spew, hack, cough, puke. The only redeeming factor was it was pleasing to look at! Aroma was that of plastic like I have smelled in plastics factories. The taste was banana flavored astringency! There was also a sharp metallic aftertaste!

Bottle from Whole Foods Redwood City. My little sister was raving about this beer, whereas largadeer from BA said it sucked something awful. Was hoping to side with my little sister on this one, but alas, Wells Banana Bread Beer did in fact suck. Pours a very clear amber color with a small off-white head that fades rather quickly. Aroma is bananas, bread, and caramel. It does smell like banana bread, although it is a bit heavy on the banana. As for flavor, well, when I was in college when we ran out of beer, I would sometimes play beer pong with "banana water," which was 99 Bananas mixed with water. It was terrible. This tasted like that. Banana bread flavor was there, but balance was not. Alcohol was also a little more present than it should be at 5.2%. Palate was also really off. Extremely thin and watery for what I expected to be a beer with some body, with a somewhat boozy/harsh finish. Overall, nice novelty, but not so great on the execution. Also, how the hell is this a "strong ale" at 5.2%?

Flaske 0,5l spandert og delt med Rune. Gyldenbrun på farge. Høyt kremaktig skum. Aroma av godt modne bananer. Smaken likedan. OK men litt uvariert. Søt ettersmak. KI=0

500mL Bottle -- Pours brown with an off-white head. Where it smells just like banana bread it tastes more like banana peel. The flavor is bitter and off-putting.

Bottle. Pours light amber in color with a small white head. Aroma of amber malts and banana. Flavor is slightly hoppy with a banana aftertaste. The carbonation in this beer really adds to the aroma but takes something away from the flavor and mouthfeel. Not bad once you have a few swigs though.

Pours amber with nice off-white head. Recedes to consistent layer on top. Smells like fake-banana flavor. Banana candy, gum, whatever. I like that smell, so kinda nice. Taste is again of fake banana. Too bad there isn’t a little real banana there. I think there is an amber under there somewhere, but tough to pick out the beer from the banana. If you’re going to do this, I say use a beer with some sweetness or tartness for the banana to ride on. As is, this just a shitty amber with banana flavor added, and that’s about it.