Honey Weiss
Diamond Bear Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review from notes, sampled 7/12/2008
Received 6 of these recently as part of the beer of the month club my wife purchased for me. Thanks for the opportunity dear.
Deep straw color with a good sized rocky white head that laces some of my glass as it disappears. Smells a little sweet a little grassy and grainy with a bit of wheat. Taste is a little sweet, a little grainy, a little grassy, a little boring. Nothing really objectionable here, but nothing really great either. Medium to light body with ample carbonation and a sweet grainy mouthfeel. Meh! Glad I got to try it, but probably wouldn't want any more.

A: Pours a slightly hazy golden/yellow. A very small white head tries desperately to separate itself from the liquid, but it never quite reaches its goal. A patchy film with no lacing.

S: Not much in the way of the aroma. A bit of lemon and wheat, a touch of grass and grain. Maybe a hint of honey, but I'm trying to pull that out of it.

T: Just a bit more going on here than in the aroma. Wheaty with some lemon and apple skins. A touch of hops and grassiness in the finish. Missing the sweetness I was expecting and hoping for.

M: Light bodied with ample carbonation that is slightly spritzy on the tongue. Slightly bitter at the finish, but not overly so.

D: Eh, not bad, but not one that is particularly easy to put down. Appropriate for a hot summer day on the golf course, but not very well balanced, and missing some characteristics (sweetness from the honey, maltiness) that you might expect from the style. I could probably have another bottle, but I'll move on to something else.

A- Pours a bright golden with a one finger head.
S- Smell is wheat, with a bit of floral sweetness, probably the honey kicking in.
T- A good bit of wheat and honey. Low key earthy hops. The flavors were independently good, but there didn't seem to be cohesion between them for me.
M- I found it a bit cloying for my tastes.
D- It's light and refreshing, but I didn't altogether enjoy this beer that much.

From home draft system.

Pours to a 1/2 inch white foamy head that falls to 1/4 inch and leaving ample lacing down the glass. Color is pale gold and very slightly hazy (haze may be due to recent keg handling.) Aroma is wheaty and slightly floral, likely due to the Cluster hops and local honey. Flavor is standard wheat sharpness, malt sweetness followed by a rather earthy Cluster bitterness. Semi-dry, sharp finish with lingering hop and honey notes. Mouthfeel is light and carbonation is strong. Overall, this is a clean, refreshing wheat beer on tap. It's a slick, filtered wheat lager similar to Leinenkugel's beer of the same name except with more maltiness coming through; a welcome alternative to cloudy, yeasty American wheat ales. The bottle reviews are largely skewed by the brutality of age and the bottling process, something that this brewery's beers are known to suffer. On tap it is fresh and clean. Hey, it won a bronze medal at the 2007 GABF so it must be a solid recipe.

12oz bottle

App: Light Straw. Perfect clarity with some suspened particles (which always bothers me). Nice frothy white head.

Smell: Fruit and nothing but. Much like canned peaches. It's interesting, but let's see how it tastes.

Taste: A rather uniform taste mostly dominated by the peach flavor found also in the aroma. Malted wheat is only detectable via the crisp mouthfeel. Ends with a slight bitterness shared equally from the hops and spiciness of the honey. The grassiness of the hops, however, pairs nicely with the sweet and spice of the honey.

Medium body with a bit of a cloying mouthfeel probably from the honey.

A decent brew with great hop flavor--strange for an APWA, but so true.

Pours an effervescent bronze/gold with 2+ fingers of ivory colored head. Good head retention & lacing

S: Grass with some phenols

T: Grassy, lemons, tart wheat & a touch of band aid up front. Apple peels, grainyness & tartness as this warms. Finishes grassy & tart with some phenolic notes; almost pulled a 4.0

MF: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation

Pretty refreshing, doesn't quite pull all the way together, but I could easily knock a sixer of this out on a hot Summer's day. This impressed me more than the field, different strokes..

12 oz. bottle tried 6 Apr 2008.

Medium stark white head. Well carbonated. Clear bright maize color. Light aroma of lemon, minerals. Tastes like french bread with a bit of honey. Slight citrus aftertaste. Light body. Ethanol barely there.

Missing the mouthfeel of weiss.

If Winnie the Pooh taught us anything, it's that BEARS LOVE HONEY. Not sure if he was a 'diamond' bear, or an imbiber for that matter, but this seems like a beer he'd enjoy...

Honey Weiss came to Oregon via James/jcdgoad. A 12 oz. bottle poured to a pint glass. Side notch is on the '5', which I'll assume means this is best before May.

A: Glowing golden color, very slightly hazed. Decent amount of rising carbonation, rising as individual bubbles rather than orderly streams. White head is a little wimpy, never quite rising to a finger and dropping quickly to a patchy film.

S: Mildly sweet aroma of flowery honey and a little fruit (apple, mostly). With some warming comes a pretty good bread-dough aroma, something akin to 'Saltines' or oyster crackers.

T: Not quite the sweet/malty flavors expected; 'Wheat' is spicy, hops have a chalky/medical bittering and finish is surprisingly dry. Lingering sweetness of honey and mild apples persists, redeeming the flavor somewhat.

M: Pretty light body but with a good dose of carbonation, a little fizzy in the mouth. Finishes mostly clean, leaving a little residual bitterness on the back of the tongue and some stickier maltiness upfront.

D: Not really sure what this beer is going for - if I were to re-categorize, I'd say 'Cream Ale'. It's an innocuous brew, neither offensive nor memorable. Alcohol level is borderline 'sessionable'. Has a place on a hot summer day (seems 'refreshing' enough), but is probably not worth seeking out. Alcohol level is borderline 'sessionable'.

This beer has very little flavor. The appearance is the best thing about this beer. Its a nice honey color. There is little to no smell. You can taste the honey and not much else. Pass on this beer. Try the presidential IPA or the Irish Red. They are at least drinkable.

Pours a nice bright gold color with a big fluffy white head.
The aroma is of musty horse blanket, peanut butter sandwich, grains, some phenols.
The taste is of musty grains, peanut butter sandwich, paper/cardboard, finishes with the peanut butter sandwich.
The mouthfeel starts light with a slight bitterness, and moves to a med-light body, finishes somewhat dry and musty
Overall this beer, is not one I'll be hunting down again. I hope its the oxidation that hurt it, and not just a bad beer.