Charlotte's Hefe Weizen
Snowy Mountains Brewery

 

Safe and honest enough effort. Clear golden amber in the glass with a small but quite thick white head. Varietal nose of sweet spices, vanilla and cloves; ok presence. Thins out a fraction in the flavour department but holds enough sweet spice and clove to keep me interested. Quite a dry style and finishes crisp. Not massively exciting but you could (and can) do worse in the Australian market place given these beers are positioned, pricewise.

Pours a cloudy dark straw colour with a generous fluffy white head.

The nose is as I would hope. A bit of banana, some cloves.

Flavours similar to the aroma: banana & clove.

Nice bitterness. Could do with a bit more body.

A nice little hefe. I'll go this again.

(Served in a short weizen glass)

A- This beer has a pale yellow body with a slight hazy to it and strands of tiny bubbles racing to the surface. The head is a big cobweb mess of snow white.

S- The green tart hint of hops gives way to a yeasty dough note that has a latex paint aroma that grows as the beer warms but stays mostly in the background.

T- The tangy bite gives way to a clove and banana yeast notes with a citrus hop finish that is quickly covered by a carbonic acid bite.

M- This beer has a medium mouthfeel with a big fizzy finish.

D- The fizz really hides a lot of the flavors especially at the finish but the bright tart flavor holds its own.

Pours a pale yellow colour with very generous head that dissipates with moderate pace, fed by a very steady bead throughout the beer. Looks very champagney. Needs a bit of yeast agitation to add cloud, now it looks more like beer, but still, that champagney carbonation... Pretty good-looker, overall.

Pleasant nose indeed. That very nice weizeny ester comes through, but pushed back by a spicey, clovey nose, a lot of spicey hop on that aroma, and it comes through loud and clear. A slight champagne sourness on there as well, but a very pleasant, complex fragrance there.

Taste is similar to the nose but less. Has that crisp, spicey character on the front of the palate, but this dissipates into a slightly tart, weizeny finish which then unfortunately trails off to leave a bit of a watery finish. Lacks the fruit promised by the nose, although the tartness is reminiscent of grapefruit or some other citrus. Has nice sweet-spicey flavours coming through on the front but it can't hang around for the encore.

Mouthfeel is very nice actually, crisp and dry but managing to remain quite full, goes down well. I remember being mistaken in a blind tasting into thinking this was a witbier because of that fruity, spicey nose. I can see the confusion here as well, the spice feels and smells very deliberate.

This is a very drinkable drop, light and pleasant with enough complexity to make it interesting. Finish lets it down, but only slightly.

Appearance - 3.5
Poured a big, fluffy white head with large bubbles. Colour is a cloudy, pale straw to orange.

Smell - 3.0
Not a bad smell, but certainly a bit off-key for style. Toffee apple is the main aroma, with banana, clove and vanilla in the background.

Taste - 3.5
Certainly a flavoursome beer, although a little unusual. Tastes of vanilla, clove, a little spice, faint toffee and a red apple like fruitiness. Low on bitterness, tart and refreshing, but the flavours are a bit muddled on the palate.

Mouthfeel - 3.0
A little under carbonated for the style, bubbles are also too large, denying the beer the creaminess that is typical of the best hefeweizens.

Drinkability - 3.5
This beer is of a highly drinkable style, and while not an exception to the rule, I would not use it as a session beer.

OVERALL - 3.35
A pretty good beer, really, although as an example of one of my favourite styles, it could be a lot better. It pales in comparison to Weihenstephaner, although to be fair, that is a very high benchmark!

Poured a 2 finger fluffy head...pale orange yellow, beautiful fruity look to it, although a little hazy, with very attractive carbonation up the edge of the glass (snifter), & left blotchy lacing.
Aroma was very fruity, with some clovey spice & citrus, also pineapple. Smelt very fresh...although struggled to get too much malts, maybe a little wheat/cereal...more fruits & a little sour.
Taste...well once swirled around was taken aback by its sourness...defintately a big sour tang on the back of the tongue for sure. No obvious bitterness to finish though. Had some light clovey spice to its palate, although no really sweetness...
This felt very fruity, lemony...had zang & tang, but just felt too rough around the edges. You know when u eat a piece of fruit that's quite not ready...yep thats how I felt with this - just not ready yet.
A lot smoother hefeweizen's out there.
After much anticipation I was left a little disappointed.

The yeast cake was very solid on the bottom of the bottle and wouldn't come out, so it's a very clear hefe that ends up being poured into my glass. Nice yellow colour, a tad too light for a true hefe, with a nice frothy white head. Still, not much of a hefeweizen look to it.

Nice crushed vegetation and citrus character on the nose, more like a wit than a hefe, but nice, nonetheless.

Hint of clove on the palate, the first real hefe note in the beer. Otherwise a good dash of sour wheat, and a grainy, dry character. It's not wowing me, but it's not bad. Mouthfeel is a little overcarbonated.

It's an odd beer this one, doesn't really classify as a true hefe, but it's only part way towards a witbier. Not bad, pretty drinkable.

a: huge head (my mistake).... yellow/orange, hazy, decent bubbling
s: wheat first up, faint ginger beer hint, banana, clove, slight caramel/candy note
f: slightly candy sweet, some tropical fruit, with a noticable later hop flavour. There is a medium bitterness in there too.
m: quite light, slightly hollow
d: very drinkable

What an angry looking beer this is.Bubbles are racing and swirling all through the beer. It looks really quite odd.
The 3 fingers of cloudy foam support a cloudy but not very cloudy beer.
The distinctive wheat aroma is pleasant and comforting.No surprises there.
Taste is reasonably good.The expected cloves are none too dominat as is the yeasty tartness. The subtle banana is far less apparent which brings the beer back a peg or two.
Too oily in the mouthwhich dulls the sharpness and clarity that makes wheat beers enjoyable for me.
All the same a good enough example of the style

A - Typical hazy straw hefeweizen colour with an inch of so of white head that slowly falls away.
S - Banana and light spice. Supposedly Cascade aroma hops are used - obviously not much.
T - Sweetish pale and wheat malt flavours along with the banana and spice from the smell.
M - Light to medium mouthfeel with fairly high carbonation.
D - Nothing all that exciting but a nice enough beer that I'd drink again.