Winter Wheat
Anaheim Brewery

 

I had this beer on-tap in a pint glass at the brewery.

Appearance: medium brown hue with plenty of haze and a finger of creamy ivory foam. Quite good.

Smell: kind of a bright, hot phenolic note that is a bit industrial. This fades into the more traditional clove, but it is too hot up front.

Taste: big clove flavor with a nice wheatiness and a light caramel and toasty note. Not bad.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a decent carbonation and creaminess.

Overall: not bad for the style, but that hot clove is just too much.

 

Anaheim's winter offering was ironically served on-tap during an 85F afternoon. Well, it is Orange County, so I'm not surprised to see a temperature spike for a few days. But at least this is a wheat ale, so it could work during warm weather too. On to the beer:

Their dark wheat ale is dark reddish amber colored with hues of orange. Above it is a head of decent retention. Beforehand, I tasted their brewery's hefeweizen, so I had hopes of a smiliar outcome in their dark version. A few smells and I'm already liking my prospects. Ground clove hits first, a vibrant toastiness from the wheat, and some fruitness too.

Taste it, pause, get a pleasant flavor of toasted bananas. Repeat process. Next arrives toasted fruits. Secondary flavors include nutmeg and ground clove, which work into the beer very well. I imagine the toastiness would work well on a cold day, though its relatively light, refreshing fruitness gives it appeal as a warm day drink too. The beer is gently crisp, which caps off the best I've had from Anaheim Brewery so far.