Hefeweizen
The LAB (Lexington Avenue Brewery)

 

Served on-tap at LAB (Lexington Ave Brewery) in Asheville, NC

A: Pours a hazy pale yellow in color with light to moderate amounts of visible carbonation and some faint golden yellow highlights. The beer has a quarter finger tall off-white head that quickly reduces to a small thin patch with a very thin film surrounding it and a thin ring at the edges of the glass. Light to moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Light aromas of banana with just the most subtle hint of clove over a light wheat.

T: Upfront there is a light to moderate flavor of wheat with light flavors of banana and some hints of clove in the finish.

M: Just heavier than light bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation.

O: Pretty easy to drink but the flavors are not as intense as in most of the other beer in the style. I found the lack of heavy visible carbonation and a head with a cap slightly disappointing.

 

 

On-tap at Lexington Avenue Brewery, Asheville, NC

A: The beer is hazy pale yellow in color and has a light amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a thin white head that died down and left a collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Moderate aromas of bananas are present in the nose.
T: Like the smell, the taste has flavors of bananas and wheat along with hints of cloves towards the finish.
M: It feels a bit more than light-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer is easy to drink, refreshing and is a good representation of the style.

 

First had: on tap at LAB, Asheville

Cloudy yellow pour typical of the style, with a small, foamy, white head that reduced to a ringlet and dotted the glass with lacing. Aroma of toasted grains, light banana esters. More of this in the taste, toasted wheat, sweet pale malts, light banana/clove profile, slightly acrid finish. Light-medium body, drinkable. Decent.

Poured a nice bright yellow, very hazy with suspended particles. Great carbonation streamed up from the bottom of the glass. A small, one inch or so head formed immediatly and faded quickly leaving behind just a thin film on top and a small amount of residual lace. The smell was all about the wheat. Deep yeasty smell, mixed in with a touch of banana, and the slightest bit of bittering hops. The taste was pretty much identical. Nice balanced taste, but totally all about the wheat flavor here. This was a nice hefe. The feel was very smoth, very crisp, clean with no residual lingering taste and great carbonation. Overall a classic german Hefe. Nothing that really blows you away, and has superior drinkability as most due. If you like the wheat this is a good beer, it was perfect tonight after dinner, would not turn it down.

LAB Hefeweizen, 5.8% abv, 15 IBUs, served in a pint glass at LAB in Asheville, NC.

Appearance: A hazy golden hay yellow in hue, capped by half finger of meringue-like, dull, pearly foam, somewhat light and airy looking. The lacing is drippy but sticky in more places than I'd expect, and along with a thin collar and an almost imperceptible dusting is all that remains after the head fades.

Aroma: Slight tropical dried fruitiness, almost like banana chips, accompanied by lots of white peppery and clove-like notes.

Taste: Strong spicy notes, very wholesome, with a slew of coriander and milder clove. This one's full of phenols, in fact, though they're balanced nicely by mild banana and a lot of light citrus as well as some light, greener fruit notes. Some sweetness is intermingled too, wheat-like, slightly crackery/sugar cookie-like.

Mouthfeel: Very highly carbonated, but still even and slightly creamy. Nice amount of lift.

Drinkability: A great classic hefeweizen, and one I was pretty impressed by. On the higher end of the abv% spectrum for the style, but still not outrageous from an absolute point of view, this one was well-made and flavorful, traditional but a little exotic, and I'd be happy to have it again.