Pineapple Grenade
Young Veterans Brewing Co.

 

 

Appearance:  Bright yellow beer on draft into a pint glass. It's the kind of color you would expect from a brew based on pineapple. Cloudy, just like pineapple juice. Minimal bright white bubbles with no lacing.

Aroma:  Very muted. Sweet and sour pineapple.

Taste:  Sweet and tangy pineapple, just as described by the brewer. Lemon. No spices, banana, or bubblegum as would be expected for the style.

Feel:  Nice carbonation. Medium body. A little bit of dryness.

Overall: Calling this a hefeweizen is a bit of a stretch. It completely lacks complexity. Yet at the same time it's hard to complain that a beer called "Pineapple Grenade" tastes like anything other than pineapple. Some more depth in the flavor would have been nice.

 

 

 

 

This is one CAN that I am proud to add to The CANQuest (tm)! I am a veteran myself, albeit a relatively older one. I am a Gulf War I U.S. Navy veteran as well as a retiree with 15.25 years of active duty service. I hope that theirs is a successful enterprise.

From the CAN: "High Speed * High Quality"; "Go Ahead! Pull the Pin!"; "Proudly Serving Ales Well Deserved of Those Who Have Served and Those Still Serving".

I beCAN by gently agitating the beer while still in the unopened CAN to ensure that any flocculate was back in suspension. The loud Crack! was like that of a rifle & our signal to advance, albeit slowly. My stealthy Glug still threatened to give away our position, so I had the BAR man open up as I pulled the pin on the next pineapple & let fly! BOOM! The jungle night erupted as a bloom of dense, foamy, bone-white head came rushing up to form two finger's worth. I was suddenly engaged in hand-to-hand CANbat as I peered into the depths of this latest CANtents. It was a slightly hazy Yellow-Gold (SRM = 4 - 5). Nose had the familiar banana esters of a Hefeweizen, but I was not getting the pineapple. Hmm. Was a sneak attack coming from the rear? Mouthfeel was medium-to-full, not quite creamy, but certainly big for the style. The taste was definitely of pineapple with a banana undercurrent! Yum. I really dislike the banana esters, eschewing them in the field MREs for the sticks of clove gum (esters), but they are too far & few between for my taste. This was pretty good, although since they had already copped to pineapple as an adjunct, why not really go all in? I liked the taste, but I would have loved it if the pineapple was really pronounced. Finish was semi-dry, but I would not argue against semi-sweet. YMMV. Good luck & I'll see you back at HQ!

Picked this up on my way home while on the road this past summer, never having anything from Young Veterans before. The label and style of this beer seemed a bit interesting but aside from the cloudiness of the liquid, there wasn't a whole lot here to let me to believe that this was a German Hefeweizen. It felt much more like a fruit / vegetable beer and went down as easily as one too, as this needed more body to be truly enjoyed...

Tastes like cold french fries

L) Pours a dark amber color with significant haze, a bit dark for the style. Has a small, short-lived white head and minimal lacing.

S) Creamy banana is definitely present in the nose, but the pineapple is very difficult to find. There is a pleasant graininess and a touch of clove to the nose as well.

T) The banana and clove is present on the palate, and the pineapple makes itself known through a sharp acidity, although a strong pineapple nature to the acidity is somewhat lacking.

F) The beer has a medium to high carbonation and a medium mouthfeel. Very spritzy and surprisingly drying.

O) A solid Hefe, I wish there was more pineapple though. If I did not know there was pineapple in the brew, I probably would not have been able to pick it out.

 

L: Poured from a bottle to a weizen glass. Had a burnt orange / brownish color and a cloudy texture. There was a small amount of foamy head that quickly dissipated. Average lacing.

S: A decent aroma of pineapple, wheat, cloves, and other light fruit.

T: Tasted of a fair amount of wheat, some pineapple (not quite as much as expected), some cloves, light banana notes, a hint of lemon, and a tinge of hops in the finish. This is a fairly good flavor, though it doesn't always hit all the hefeweizen notes (not enough banana and bubblegum). Still, the pineapple is a good addition.

F: A fair amount of carbonation with a lively finish. Medium-bodied.

O: Pineapple grenade is bumpy in spots, but not a bad effort. Drinkable.

Young Veterans Brewing Co. "Pineapple Grenade"
12 fl. oz. brown glass bottle without packaging codes or freshness dating
$1.67 @ Kroger, Virginia Beach, VA

Notes via stream of consciousness: I wasn't sure if I should rouse the yeast or not, but I did. It's now a hazy orangeish in color beneath a short head of white. Not a lot of head retention going on there. Wow, it's already headed towards becoming just a collar - but it's not the glass, I just used it with good results. Moving forward, the aroma is grainy, husky even, and fruity but in a kind of non-distinct way, with a bit of clove. I get pineapple but not in a pineapple juice kind of way, more like the raspy pineapple pulp, or skin, or leaves - I'm not sure, but it smells like when you pick up a pineapple in the store. Let's hope the flavor is better... and yes it is. The wheaty malt that's there balances the acidity that must be coming from the pineapple; although again, I'm not really getting "pineapple". I am finding some banana and clove once the initial pineapple-pulp (or whatever it is) flavor has passed... Anyway, it's interesting and refreshing, and balanced with a touch of tartness... but it's just not for me, and I don't think the pineapple has helped what would probably otherwise be a fine Bavarian-style hefeweizen. Medium-light in body and moderately crisp (which probably explains in part the limited head retention).

Poured from a can into a pint glass.

Appearance: Hazy golden color with a thick white head.

Smell: Smell of light citrus, cloves and pineapple.

Mouthfeel/Taste: Smooth light bodied. Taste of pineapple and cloves. Hints of citrus, hops, and grassy tones.

Overall: Excellent beer. I feel that this was more complex than I anticipated. I would definitely buy this one again.

 

Nice mild Hefe. Poured from a 12 oz can into a tulip glass. Big delicately bubbly white head. Clear gold on first pour, murky straw gold later. Head retention is good. Not much lacing. Aroma is lemon, wheat and yeast. Maybe a little clove but none of the astringency or "banana and bubble gum" found in the real complex hefeweizens. Mouthfeel is OK with good carbonation and a touch of wheat bitterness. World class?? No way. A pitcher of this with friends on a hot day? Hell yeah!!!!