Chris's Summer D-Lite
Full Sail Brewery at Riverplace / The Pilsner Room

 

Had this at the Full Sail brewery in Hood River, Oregon on 2009-05-23.

This is an unfiltered Berliner Weiss that is made with 50% wheat malt, a tiny amount of hersbroker hops and a bit of lactic acid.

The color is clear gold.

I initially ordered the "yellow" without flavoring and enjoyed the sour taste and dry finish, which was quite refreshing

My wife and I then experimented with various amounts of the sweet raspberry and sweet woodruff syrups thanks to the gracious waitress that let us do some mad mixing.

A full measure of either syrup made it too sweet and disguised the underlying uniqueness of the brew. I settled on a half measure of sweet woodruff as my personal favorite with this beer.

Well done, Full Sail.

As luck would have it, this new beer had just been tapped the night before our Friday afternoon visit to the Full Sail Taproom at the Hood River brewery (brewed on the system at Riverplace - Portland). A creation of brewer Chris Haveman, it's a 4%, 9 IBU treat.

Dubbed 'The Stoplight' on FS tasting notes: 'Red' for a dash of traditional raspberry syrup, 'Yellow' for the straight-up version, 'Green' for the sweeter woodruff syrup. I had a small taste of 'Red', but full pours of 'Yellow' upon which the review is based.

A: Hazy and golden with a thin whitish cap. Gentle fizz and a few rising carbonation streams. Minor flecks of lace scattered about.

S: Lactic tartness cuts through the air, intermingling with a fine, somewhat sweeter baked bread.

T: Good bready/crackery tone upfront with just enough tart/sour after-effects. A twist of lemon, a wheaty spicing.

M: A fine, lightly clinging tartness inside a building graininess. Mouthfeel is light, typical of the style - springy but not too carbonated. Extremely refreshing.

D: It's a style I've had limited access to, but a version I'd love to have all summer long. Fresh, flavorful, quenching, delicious. Drinkability is extremely high. Well done, Full Sail (Chris!)!