Flat Earth Society
Double Nickel Brewing Company

Double Nickel Brewing Co. "Flat Earth Society"
16 fl. oz. can, coded "03/19/19 11:33:30" and sampled on 04/27/19 12:13:52
$4.99 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: So here's something new, this is a "New England Wheat" double dry hopped with Citra, Amarillo, and Mosaic hops. I don't know how this could go wrong! It's poured a very hazy golden body beneath a tall head of just slightly off-white foam. As might be expected of a wheat beer, the head seems to be holding remarkably well and I'm probably going to have to wait a bit to take my first sip. Plenty of tiny bubbles can be seen rising quickly below. The aroma is fairly limited for it having been dry-hopped. It's citrusy, slightly grassy, and a little yeasty - the final pour took it from being very hazy to full blown cloudy like a hefeweizen. OK, on to the flavor... there are more hops there but they remain kind of muddled and non-distinct. I'm getting berries, candied orange, mango, melon, dull pineapple, and a bit of lemon. So, again, I'm not getting as many hops as I thought I'd get out of a double dry hopped beer but that's fine, it's good as it is, there's still some complexity to it. The wheat flavor comes through nicely, and that's not always the case with American wheats. I'm wondering what makes it a New England wheat though? It's hazy but plenty of wheat beers are hazy. Is it the mild bitterness, because it is pretty mild at maybe even less than 20 IBUs. I should point out though that it's not too sweet, the balance is quite nice. There's some sweetish wheaty malt right upfront but that's then cut through by the hops and a hint of acidity, and then it ends mostly dry but with a touch of residual malt sweetness lingering. Even there though there's some lemon and a touch of grassiness and pine giving it just enough edge to balance it. I'd say that sweetish but still balanced finish is common for a lot of wheat beers, specifically hefeweizens. --- And you know what else is interesting, and I hadn't really caught this until I mentioned the hefeweizens, but there's a light bubble gum note to it. I don't think that's coming from the yeast, I think it's coming from a combination of the residual sugars and the hops. --- Anyway, that limited bitterness and the resulting sweetness is probably what they mean by "New England", and they were probably hoping and expecting that they'd get more hop aroma and flavor than they did - I'm assuming this is the first batch as I haven't seen it before, maybe the next batch will have a little more hops to it, although I'm very much liking it as it is. Let me finish up then... medium body with a crisp, finely effervescent carbonation; and the head retention and lacing turned out to be quite good in the end. I am really liking this one. The wheat flavor is there, the sweetish balance is there, and it's fruity like a German hefeweizen except that it's not a German hefeweizen at all. American wheat ales tend to be dull and boring but that's certainly not the case here. Except for the slightly high strength (5.8%... Budweiser is 5.0) this is the perfect summer beer. Thankfully I've got three more as I have to work in the yard this weekend, but I can also see drinking this at any time of year. Yeah, I'm impressed.
Review #6,560