Hot Girl Summer
Talisman Brewing Company

Review: 2439
Name: Hot Girl Summer
Brewery: Talisman Brewing
Location: Ogden, UT
Style: Pale Wheat Ale
ABV: 5%
Canned: Unknown
Date: 30 June 2025
Honestly, I do not know what a 'hot girl summer' has to do with lavender, but I enjoy learning new things. I am using a Wiezen glass and serving the beer at 42 degrees. The pour created a frothy, foamy, creamy, three-fingered head with excellent retention. The slow dissipation left chunks of lacing on the glass. The color is a pale straw with golden yellow hues, charting at SRM 4, and mostly clear. The appearance of the beer is above average for this style.
Nosing the glass, I detect lavender, lemon, wheat, bread, a light biscuit note, and floral esters.
The flavors begin with lavender, followed by more lavender, lemons, wheat, bread, a light biscuit, a floral bouquet, and earthiness.
The mouthfeel is carbonic with a light and dry finish. The body is light and has medium carbonation.
Final Thought: The beer is refreshing and quaffable; however, the lavender is strong. I have not tried anything else from this brewery, but I would like to explore other options. It appears that the beer has a lightly toasted malt note that somewhat complements the malt and wheat bill. The hops are faint to non-existent, and the sorta lemon helps cut through the lavender. Overall, it's a decent attempt; I would like the lavender to be slightly less pronounced.

real ambitious brew from these guys, nice to see some creative new ones in here this time. this is a lavender honey wheat brew, not much to the yeast at all, which i think makes sense with the extra ingredients, lets them shine in the absence of like wit or hefe esters. light haze to this bronze toned brew, high rising white head in a proper bubble hefeweizen glass, maybe a shade or three darker than anticipated but it looks good. the nose is striking in that its so lavender forward, no doubt some real lavender was used in this, it seems intense but just on the line to me, not way over it, enhanced by a floral element in the honey too, herbal like tea, not just perfume, springy more than wintery, and slightly nutty from the wheat underneath, not sure of there is some toasted grain in here but whatever is beefing up the malt is needed to keep this beery and balanced. the flavor is similar, just a ton of lavender all the way through, in the center its a little more than needed, but it goes away after each sip which is a necessity. still its perhaps too bold to be drinkable and refreshing for most, and frankly could be scaled back by probably half to yield a more crowd pleasing and sessionable brew, but with the honey element, i think it works like it is too, although not for everyone. the honey adds cool sweetness on top of the earthy wheat foundation, a light citrus note in there with it, and it extends it enough to sort of soften it without making it sugary, a great addition. good carbonation here, a fluffy proper wheat feel, and it warms up without going weird. for me this would be aided by a reduction of lavender and perhaps by a secondary ferment on wine or champagne yeast, the honey and lavender seem to want a little something there, but i think this is a great step forward for these guys in terms of innovation, even if its not fully dialed in at this point...