Summer Daze
Red Lodge Ales

 

 

 

 

 

This tasted and felt like an American hefeweizen. So it was mild and enjoyable. Couldn't taste the higher alcohol I thought the taste was well balanced.

Extremely bright, sunshiny; good bright white head and lotsa lacing. Looks like summer, very beautiful.

Flavors are bright banana and cloves and an ending note of songs astringent bitterness that offsets the beginning sweetness really well. Carbonation is aggressive, making it seem fairly effervescent.

A genuinely great beer.

 

 

 

Poured from bottle into a pint glass

Appearance – The beer pours a super hazy golden amber color with a small billowy white head. The head fades slowly over time to leave good deal of spider web lacing on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma of the brew is rather strong of a yeasty and spicy smell with a whole lot of coriander and clove with a hint of a white pepper mixed within. There is a big showing of a banana smell which is accompanied by some other notes of a musty wheat bread smell as well as a decent showing of some grass and hay.

Taste – The taste begins with a rather thick wheat bread taste mixed with a whole lot of yeast and some sweeter banana and lighter caramel tastes. The yeast is strong right from the start with it getting even stronger as the taste moves on further toward the end. The spice is decent up front, but intensifies as the taste moves on, with more and more coriander, clove and pepper coming to the tongue. With some hay flavors as well as some tastes of an herbal nature coming to the tongue more toward the end, one is left with a sweet banana and rather heavy yeasty and hefe taste to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is very thick and chewy with a carbonation level that is on the slightly lower side. The thick and chewy feel is great for the big yeasty, wheaty, and sweet tastes creating an almost sweet bread dessert like feel to the brew. Overall, I would say the feel is rather well done for the tastes of the brew.

Overall- A decent doppleweisse with a huge yeasty, banana, and odd musty wheat bread flavor. The flavors are rather interesting overall, and with the lighter hop and spice, one I rather like. I could see however, how may not care for the mix of flavors. Any which way I think it is worth at least one try to see if it is a brew you may enjoy.

 

 

 

tough one to add here, because its described on the label as a "doppleweisse" so basically a double or strong wheat, but thats not a category here, and its not lagered, so the bock part is wrong, but suffice it to say its a strong german wheat, borrowing the weihenstephaner yeast strain, which makes this beer a real beauty, if a bit big and thick for summer drinking. hazy as heck, more than just yeast left over, there is straight grain bits in here, all finely mashed up, but it makes it heavy and chalky in texture, just slightly tannic, and dense as hell. nose is a hit of banana yeast, loads of trasiotnal german yeast, and some copious wheat malt. i get less real fruit character in the taste, but the german theme is consistent. huge grain bill, some filtration or even whirl-pooling might help lighten this up and make it more appropriate for summer. as i see it, its a fall wheat, even though its blonde, its so big. the booze is invisible, but the body is sludgy and even though it has expressive bubbles, it still drinks slow. summer daze is a good name, if you drink this a little dehydrated in warm weather, you will undoubtedly be in a daze. red lodge continue to set the standard for montana brewers though, and this is fun stuff with a classic yeast strain. worth buying for the very affordable price it sits on shelves at.