Summer Somewhere
Finback Brewery - Glendale

Hefeweizens are meant to be poured into weizen glasses.
Yes, for obvious reasons, of course I poured my can into a weizen glass.
The appearance was a bronzed golden thick copper color with a foamy head that slid off a bit quicker than I expected. Not much lace.
The aroma pulls together the sweet banana esters, wheaty bready yeastiness and strawberry sweet and tart characters up front. The normal clove seems to be fainter than wanted.
The flavor bends the weizen flavors of the banana esters and sweet wheat over the strawberry quality to intertwine fairly nice and much better than I expected. Crisp sweet wheat and strawberry sweetness in the aftertaste.
The mouthfeel seemed to cut out the expected spicy harshness that tends to kick back in finish or sometimes aftertaste. I didn't mind for me but it's quite different for the style. Strawberry sweetness is what I believe has done this. Carbonation felt fine, perhaps a touch lower than expected. ABV felt on par. It's way smoother on the finish than expected.
Overall, as much as I like the normal German hefeweizen, just done true to style, part of me likes this a lot too. I might be left scratching my beard on this one, but perhaps I shouldn't overthink this and be happy for what's going on with this beer.

I see strawberry in a beer title, and get a sense of dread. Very rarely does it become anything but cloyingly sweet. Not this beer. Very subtle fruity way-undertones, with a refreshing hefeweizen freshness.

 

 

Moderate head, small for a Hefeweizen. It never settles completely. Good lace. Hazy to cloudy liquid with a darker gold, nearly amber, color.

Strange earthy aroma with a strong beef stew smell. I detest this combination. To add insult, there's a smell that reminds me of rendered fat--the kind you might dispose of, like bacon.

Lots of wheat and yeast to the tasting. Again, this is not an appealing taste to me, although it is an improvement from the smell. I get the classic banana with just a touch of sourness in the swallow. Good body with an appropriately high carbonation level. The aftertaste is brief and tart.

Another rainy day beer. Sundays are becoming my hefeweizen day somehow.

Looks traditional, but I feel like I can see a somewhat apple/strawberry juice tinge of color in it. It isn't a full on orange-ish yellow as you could expect.

Aroma is a generic weizen yeast smell, maybe being cut by the strawberries, maybe not.

First impression of the taste is sticky rice and strawberry juice. Some wheaty qualities for sure, not a lot of weizen character. Almost thinking maybe they didn't use weizen yeast at all.

I don't know if it's a hefeweizen. It's got a lot of wheat qualities and feels very fruity.

THis one is almost all over the map, and it feels like it's on the fence of Pale Wheat Ale and Hefeweizen in my opinion. However, as a summer beer, it is certainly welcome.