NZ Wheat
Edge Brewing Project

 

Pours a champagne colour, slightly cloudy with dense white head, packed tightly together but thinning out slightly more quickly than I'd like. Decent-looking wheat beer.

Smells grainy upfront, touch of sourdough and oatmeal on there. Touch of coriander and black pepper mixing with passionfruit on the back. Decent hops, and nice mix with the wheat characters.

Taste is yeasty, bready. Notes of caramel and buttery sweetness, with some slight astringent coriander on the late-mid and then a big fruity pineapple hop note with a touch of pear. Yeastiness is greatly disappointing, and the overall blend between wheat beer and hops is not quite fused together, seems an odd mix in spite of how pleasant the nose smelled.

Decent body, subtle texture. Not bad.

Not sure if this beer really works for me. It's OK but just seems a bit of a strange mix.

Tried on-tap at the GABS Festival in Melbourne. Edge is an interesting little project, forming from collaboration and so far only having released beers under other breweries' labels (Beer Here and Bridge Road). This is the first beer I've seen that's clearly been marketed as just from the project itself.

Pours a light yellow colour with some faint haze in the glass. Body weight is relatively light and flows smoothly around the glass. Head is relatively frothy and forms a decent crest of pure white. Not much lacing. Overall, it looks decent enough.

It's a bit downhill from here, unfortunately. Not much on the nose at all, despite the purported Rakau bonanza in the tasting notes. Thin wheaty notes, slight bread overtones and a porridge of rye cereal. Really quite disappointing.

Taste is similarly weak. Light, flat entry on the palate with a very slight grain note, middling wheat tones through the centre and a dead finish that leaves a slight cloying sweet grain character. Aftertaste is yeasty and floury.

Feel is a little better, having a little heft. Although this does assist the cloy on the back of the palate.

There's actually not a lot to this. I was pretty disappointed. Edge have done some interesting things so far, but this is far from interesting, and was completely overwhelmed at the festival.