Weizenator
BJ's Restaurants & Brewery

750 ml bottle. Pours hazy amber with tall, long lasting, fluffy white head and nice lacing. Aroma is of caramel, wheat malt, spices, prunes and red berries. Body is full and smooth. Wheat malt, banana, red fruit, caramel and spices fill the mouth. There is some acidity. Finish is long and spicy with some acidity. Good beer, but I’m not sure about acidity. Maybe the bottle did not age well.

 

Poured from 750 mL bottle into tulip.
A: Pours a clear orange amber hue with 1 inch bubbly tan head with decent retention.
S: Soft clove, cherries and berries followed by soft honeyed malt and a hint of pepper.
T: Cherries, berries, clove, and subtle banana and pepper. Honeyed malt backbone.
M: Light body. Layers of fruit and malt sweetness. Almost syrupy.
D: A decent example of style. Wish this had a bit more complexity and body.

A Rare Beer Club offering. Pours a dark copper color with a foamy head that disappears quickly. Aroma of tart fruit. Tastes like a really tart apple. Crisp and dry.

750 ml. cork and caged bottle as part of new beer club at BJ's. This one brewed for the July/August 2021 edition in Temple. TX. Poured into a large wine glass, the Weizenator opens with a light pop after a struggle to extract the cork. The pour is amber with your typical weizen haze and shows a nice cap of off white foam. Offers decent retention. Likely not bottle conditioned.

Nose is creamy with light hints of wheat and muddled malt. Bit of banana ester and some spice after a spin to regenerate the cap. Pretty light though, implying a constrained fermentation temperature. Surely not the 'Intense Banana and Clove Aroma' mentioned on the label. Taste follows with a creamy texture and faint at best phenolics. Touch of wheat is evident, along with blended and somewhat sweet malts that border on but don't quite become cloying in nature. Feel is smooth and nondescript, with the word creamy coming to mind again as the carbonation is full and smooth.

Overall not a bad beer but not a good weizenbock as it lacks a certain brightness on the nose or great depth of character in flavor.

Note: ABV 7.2%

Tucson BJ's
Appearance: Nice color, great head and head retention. Sort of an off tan with amber highlight for the head. The beer was amber, not cloudy.
Smell: Great, banana, wheat, slight spiciness in the first smell. Alcohol is present in the nose. Not offputting, though.
Taste: Bananas and spice. Wheat is there, but not outstanding. Caramel sweetness in the after taste, not sure if that should have been there. Alcohol taste plays with the spiciness and is a very prominent flavor, but like I said, not a bad one.
Mouthfeel: Alcohol on the tongue is a bit biting and that is where this beer may fall a little. There is a softness on the mid-palate that is nice, but the alcohol will grab the back of the tongue.
Drinkability: This beer was not work to get down, but could use some polishing. I would order another, but would probably need something else in between.

Sampled BJ's Tucson, AZ
This beer is served with a very thin, quickly disappearing, light brown colored head. The beer is pretty clear and shows a concentrated amber color that has just a touch of brown to it. The aroma is quite noticeable, even as it is just sitting on the table I get concentrated notes of caramelized bananas, sweet plums, raisins and a touch of clove character. This is really rich, sweet and fruity smelling. Concentrated notes of banana take the aromatic lead, but all sorts of notes are here. It has a light tartness to it and towards the end takes on something that smells like cherry flavored cough syrup (at leas the amped up cherry character of a cough syrup).

This beer is rich and palate coating, it is still drinkable, yet is definitely a sipping brew. It is definitely way too cold right now as well (stupid pre frozen pint glasses). The taste has a spicy finish that has a certain black pepper quality to it; this seems to be mostly carbonation derived, but something else in the beer gives this perception as well. Touches of tart plum add a nice balance to the sweetness and there is even a touch of warming alcohol to help the balance along as well. As the beer warms up slightly, the clove note becomes more evident. Also more evident is a sweet apple character and a more accentuated plum-like flavor. This becomes quite a bit more drinkable as it warms, it is still a sipping brew, but it softens and becomes more integrates on the whole. Part of this might be that it picks up a bit more tartness as it warms that is typically characteristic of a Weizen.