Grasshopper (Unfiltered)
Big Rock Brewery

 

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor. I wasn't initially convinced that this warranted a new entry here, but after having a small sample, it sure seemed at least worthy of investigation on a Saturday night.

This beer pours a hazy (of course), bright pale golden yellow hue, with one fat finger of weakly puffy, rather loosely foamy, and lazily bubbly dirty white head, which leaves but a few sparse specks of falling comet lace around the glass as it quickly dissolves.

It smells of bready, grainy, and slightly sweet wheat malt, a further touch of sugary caramel, applesauce, pressed pears, a mild indistinct savoury spiciness, and soft earthy, zingy yeast. The taste is more of the same - a solid grainy, bready, somewhat doughy, and yeasty mixed caramel/wheat malt, the same drupe fruitiness from the nose, well-lessened spice, and a hint of earthy dryness that may or may not be the same ethereal hops from the 'Kristall' version of Gress-oppa'.

The carbonation is more or less AWOL, whether from the original, or most recent serving source, it's a bit hard to tell, the body medium-light in weight, and generally smooth, the fruitiness seemingly going the long mile in this regard. It finishes off-dry, a lingering semi-sweet wheatiness, almost clamouring by now fruitiness, and strangely underwhelming yeast character seeing us to the door.

I suppose the biggest deltas between this and the normal-ass version are the mildly enhanced (or, rather, 'activated') yeastiness, and a more rounded, playfully narrow orchard fruitiness. Oh, and the look, which is actually more glassy, of the stained variety, than typically weizen-like. Leave it to Big Rock to have a marketing fart of an idea turn into something pub taps and growler bars across the province will duly sell as differentiated product. Sigh.