Duck Dive Hefeweizen
Oggi's Pizza & Brewing Co.

Pours a cloudy honey gold with a finger of head that quickly dissipates to a thin ring with little to no lacing. Aroma of banana and white bread. Taste follows nose.

March 31st, 2015 - Hot on the heels of the California Gold, the next sampler here on my first visit to Oggi's is the Duck Dive Hefeweizen. The color is a little murky and foamy, suggesting a thicker aroma and palate, though I find it rather hard to glean the scent. There's a light wheat note there, but it's clean and sterile, like Wonderbread white bread. The flavor is also - tragically - flat and empty. At least at first. By the third sip a slumbering and groggy bitterness appears and the aftertaste takes on a lightly dry character, but it doesn't add much to the enjoyment of the brew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at Oggi's Pizza and Brewing Company in Santa Clarita, CA.

Pours a murky light orange with a foamy tan head that settles to wisps of film on top of the beer. Small streaks of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of grain, wheat, and alcohol. Taste is much the same with an alcohol kick on the finish. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty poor beer all around with no real hefeweizen aromas or flavors.

On tap at Garden Grove location.

Ordered because I haven't had a hefe in awhile.

Hazy pale yellow with almost no white head poured into a pint glass. What no weizen glasses? No lacing left on the glass.

Smell is promising. Hay and straw with some banana and clove esters present.

Taste is flat. Wheat twang with a slight clove finish, but a very undesirable skunkiness in there.

No mouthfeel. Not very carbonated. Not the crisp and refreshing weizen that I am craving right now in the summer.

On-tap at Oggi's Tustin

A: The beer pours a slightly cloudy pale straw color with a sizable white head.

S: Not surprisingly, no banana or clove or bubblegum aromas here. Instead, green apple, lemon, and sour wheat. I don't really even get any bread or malt aromas.

T: Tastes very much like a green Jolly Rancher. Big time green apple flavor with some lemon, lemon zest, and sour wheat flavors. Grass flavors come out of nowhere and there is a strong astringency to it.

M: Light to medium in body with a medium level of carbonation.

O: Just bad. Avoid this one.

A:pale gold and straw colored. Slightly cloudy.minimal head without lacing.

S:slightly sweet without much of the hefeweizen smells that are so typical.

T: bitter and not at all sweet--no hefe yeast-driven flavors. Not good.

M:very thin and dry. Minimal carbonation.

D: not drinkable or refreshing. Avoid.

Sample at the Santa Clarita location. Served with a lemon. This brew is a hazy dark yellow color with a thin bone white head that fizzes away quickly. Thin ring of lacing on the glass. The aroma is wheaty with touches of fruit and malt. Light-bodied with a sweet fruit and wheat character. Mild yeast is in the background. The finish is round and wheaty with a mild spice aftertaste. Barely average overall.

The first indication that this was going to be interesting was the bright, clear orange color served in a pint glass with a millimeter-thick collar of tan head.

Um, what?

(It was the same color as my IPA almost.)

The nose and flavor were similarly poor, with some smoothness associated with the malted wheat, but no phenolics and a noticeable hop bitterness. Not only is this not a hefeweizen, it's not even a very good American wheat.

Style issues aside, it still didn't taste very good. There was an off-putting yeast flavor, spiky hop presence, and the carbonation was a little lean for my taste - it let the awkward yeast flavor sit around on the palate.

This is the third beer I've seen titled hefeweizen for the Scottsdale Oggi's and I feel terrible telling my partner that I had heard decent things about their wheat beer. The Duck Dive was absolutely awful.

*I have no idea if this is a limited release, but they seem to change their recipe a lot with their wheat beer.*

Stopped by here on a pass through trip. Tasted a couple of brews and bought two growlers to take home, but while I was waiting I had the hefe.

Looked really thin and watery, headless.

Smell was stifled man. I expected some banana or clove but there was nothing.

Taste was the same as the smell: absent.

Thin, watery, not pleasant at all.

I enjoy a good hefe but this was a really poor representation. Hate to say that but it's true. I had a taster of the Hop Juice and it was so good that I got a growler, but this hefe was just plain plain.