Brews Brothers Baby Got Back Hoppy Hefe
Parallel 49 Brewing Company

 

 

Fairly clear, golden yellow, pours a nice white head that shows a little lace, but no retention.

Aroma is basically a hefe (vanilla, clove, a bit of tropical fruit), with a little extra hop aroma.

The hopping is surprisingly restrained, but compliments the brew. Banana bread, clove, light floral and overripe melon from the hops.

Body is heavier than most hefes, with a modest carbonation.

 

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle, part of the new configuration of the current P49 'Brews Brothers' packaging - now a four-pack of bombers with a 'West Coast' theme. The guest brewer here is Washington State's Scuttlebutt Brewing.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium golden yellow colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some creepy hairy arachnid profile lace around the glass as it quickly bleeds away.

It smells of semi-sweet, cereal-forward wheat malt, banana pudding, a bit of white pepper and clove spiciness, some indistinct tropical fruit notes, and earthy, leafy, and grassy green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy wheat malt, wet banana chips, a mixed melon-heavy fruit bowl, musty clove and faint ground pepper spice, and more leafy, grassy and herbal verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its merely supportive frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and sort of smooth, as the spice and hop acridity takes more than a minor tithe here. It finishes off-dry, the malt and melon fruity character parrying the lingering spices and hops.

Overall, this is certainly an interesting hopped-up Hefe, as the varietal employed is apparently a very new German one from Bavaria - which results in not much bitterness, and way more fruitiness. Add that to the heady, if sort of mawkish base brew, and it somehow works, especially given that the extra point and a half of alcohol is not noticeable in the least.

Collaboration with Scuttlebutt Brewing Co.

Could either be more hoppy or less hoppy - either make it a regular hefeweizen, or really kick up the hops. Personally, I'd probably prefer a true hefe, but obviously that's not what they set out to make.