White Water Wheat Beer
Shenandoah Brewing Co.

Draft at the brewery; all three beers we had poured looked exactly the same. Muddy light brown and slightly opaque, quite still. The oddest amongst them for the visual is this "wheat". This is vaguely yeasty, definitely musty, and very flat. Overall, my one-word rating would be summed up by "blah." (#2762, 3/24/2007)

12 oz. with no freshness date. It pours into the weizen glass a dark orange/peach with a good amount of carbonation that is rising very rapidly. It's topped with a half inch whitish head but subsides to nothing 1/3 of the way through. It smells of fruits (citric and some others), some wheat, salt?, and some other interesting kick of an aroma that I can't pinpoint. The beer tastes citric with medicinal phenols, a low bitterness, a minerally/salty quality, and maybe some faint banana. It's overall kinda bland, with the most dominant flavor being the phenols. The body is pretty thin and leaves a short finish. An interesting beer, but one I will probably not come back to.

12oz bottle purchased as a single somewhere in NoVA, either WF/Vienna, WF/Annadale, Norm's, or Rick's.

Poured into an imperial pint glass, formed a 1" bright white head over the clear light golden brew. Head lasts pretty well, and lacing is average to good. Aroma is minimal, with pale malt about all I can discern. Taste is similar, with the pale malts dominant upfront, and then nothing else seems to take over, just sort of coasts along until swallowing. Left me waiting for something to happen. Mouthfeel is creamy and smooth, and drinkability is okay, but the other attributes leave me wondering if I'd want to revisit, even if I could. Almost seems like someone asked the brewer to make a dumbed-down, summer-type beer that wouldn't offend anyone, and this is what came out. I want some wheat character in something that touts itself as a wheat beer.

Had this one at the Brickskeller in Washington, D.C. It poured with a clear golden body with no haze. For a wheat beer, I was fairly surprised of that. The head was frizzy and quick to dissolve. The odor entices slightly, with a good peppery smell. The taste has a toasted malt feeling to it with slight cherry hints. Mostly, you feel the smooth maize-like flavor at the back of the palate. After all that it finishes very sweetly. It doesn't seem very consistent to the style and overall it was a very average beer. Not recommended.

My bottled version didn't look filtered...did I get a bad bottle? Based on other reviews this might be the case. Well anyway this one is golden in color with a head that disappears way to quickly to be a "traditional" wheat beer. Doesn't smell quite like a wheat beer, some hints wheat, touch of vanilla maybe? Smell is pretty bland and watery. I think Water is the operative word in White Water Wheat. Lack of the weizen yeast means that there isn't much in the way of complexity. The wheat in this case serves to quiet any hops and flatten the malt. I didn't really care for this style. I might have to give this one a second some day.

This review is based on a growler from the brewpub.

Golden with a low white head which disappears quickly leaving no lace, low carbonation, and an essentially flat beer. Grainy and fruity aroma with a dark grainy flavor. Light-medium bodied and smooth like a hefe-weizen but way too flat.

Would like to taste the bottled version too.