Marin Hefe Weiss
Marin Brewing Company

 

This hefe pours a light, straw yellow color with a fairly large white foamy head and is heavily carbonated. The smell is yeasty, of wheat and a little lemon. The body is light, but toasted bread malts are noticeable. The flavor agrees with the scent. It is strongly of yeast, with wheat and lemon flavors in there too. There’s also a kind of peppery hoppiness in the aftertaste that is atypical of hefes. There’s nothing too egregiously wrong about the flavors, but it’s this carbonation that I really can’t forgive. This is like soda if not champagne level carbonation and is just too much for a beer. The flavors are really pretty boring and watered down as well. I’ve been drinking a lot of great German hefes lately, so I may be judging this slightly more harshly than normal, but I can’t believe that this has won so many medals as advertised on the bottle. I don’t think this is a good hefe and I really haven’t liked what I’ve tried from this brewery in general.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks nice in the goblet with a long-lasting head and swirling lacing. Pale golden color with a slight haze rather than cloudy. It does have a lemony flavor, which is quite nice if you forget what you were expecting. Very sprightly and light in the mouth. Not much maltiness, which contributes to the lightness. Fairly sharp in flavor. Faintest nose of malt and flowers. A subtle but pleasant aftertaste with slight bitterness. Makes me think of artichokes with a couple drops of lemon.

I have to call this an American Wheat. I'll bet if that's what it said on the label, the scores would have been higher. Perfectly drinkable, just not a German-style hefe.

Pours hazy golden with enormous head that overflows with the slightest of vigor in pouring. Nose is very lemony. Lot of dry wheat cracker on the palate and not so much banana. Lemon takes over. Thin, watery body & some unwelcome sour fruitiness. Disappointing .

Poured from a 22oz bottle into a Widmer weizen glass. An unfiltered, American-style wheat beer.

A- Pours a cloudy golden yellow color with a moderate amount of white, fizzy foam. The head doesn't stick around for long and leaves very little lacing.

S- Wheat malt and pale malt with a slight citrus note and mild spice from the yeast. There's an artificial fruit smell in place of the expected banana, clove and bubble gum aromas. Ehh...

T- Flavors of wheat malt and spicy yeast are there, but the taste is a little bland and possesses a musty, funky quality that seems out of place. The watery finish leaves only a faint metallic note.

M- Light to medium-bodied with moderate, fizzy carbonation.

D- Drinkability is decent despite the off flavors that make me not want to drink this beer again.

I'd say skip this one since there are better examples of the style.

The label on the bottle and Marin's website say this is an American Wheat, so I'll treat it like one. Pour is an opaque dark yellow with a puffy white head. Aroma of wheat and yeast, but musty. The taste is thick with wheat and bread. Slight sour finish. As a German Hefe, this is terrible. As an American Wheat, its alright.

Pours a pleasant, if slightly light yellow gold, cloudy with sediment. Head is suitable large, but loose bubbled - leaving it look like soap suds. Carbonation is rampant and large. Not the best looking hefe I've ever seen.

Not much on the nose - a bit of sweetness, a bit of an oily character. But not a hint of the classic banana/clove/bubblegum of the best hefes. Very weak.

Taste is also a bit bland - a light bitter character up front that leads into a gritty yeast character. It's not bad, albeit missing the true hefe phenols which would be working their way around the sinuses. However, apart from that, the palate is quite hefe like. Mouthfeel is a little too carbonated, but the body has a smoothness which is nice.

It's by no means a great hefe, but it's a pretty drinkable beer. In fairness, this is a style that's hard to get right, and easy to get wrong. And while they haven't really got it right, they haven't really got it wrong either. Very drinkable at least.

22 oz. bomber,

A: Pours a cloudy gold, with an overly fizzy white head, fair retention, leaves spotty lacing.

S: Lemon zest, get lemon soda as well, grain, green apple.

T: Green apple peel and lemon are apparent on the first sip, maybe some acetylaldehyde. Get a lot of mandarin orange as well. Get a bit of banana and yeast flavour on the back end, but it is driven out by a zippy acidity.

M: A bit too overcarbonated, juicy acidity, light-bodied, definitely has a spritzy overall feel.

D: A tasty brew, but it's not a Hefeweizen, I really didn't get any great yeast esters except in passing, I think I'll go with the real thing next time, but that's not say this beer isn't worth drinking, it's a solid American Wheat.

A - A hazy straw to gold with a pillowy cream colored head that is long lived. Not much lacing to speak of, but that could be the glass's fault.

S - Pungent grassy and peppery nose with a touch of moss and heather. There is a hint of sweet honey underneath. Smells more like a pils than a hefe.

T - Upfront, there is a slightly sweet bready taste with a touch of honey, then there is a bit of hay and a touch of white pepper. The aftertaste emerges seamlessly from the foretaste with a earthy bready flavor more pepper and mild mossy bitterness. A bit of heather throughout at warmer temperatures. Overall the flavor is mild and a little watery.

M - High carbonation, thin to medium, watery, refreshing.

D - Good. Easy to throw back the entire bomber. More than that? I don't know. I might have again if I find it on draft. This is not like a American Wheat, which I feared that it would be. It is also not like a hefeweizen. It is a wheat pilsner. I don't know what that really is, but it is okay in my book.

From a 22 oz bottle this poured a very cloudy pale yellow with a huge white head. Lots of yeast in the bottom of the bottle. Nose was banana with lemon and a yeasty flavor. Mouthfeel was fizzy and it seemed highly carbonated. Dry finish with a touch of hops. Tastes a little like a German Hefe but mostly an American Wheat.

Pours cloudy straw yellow with some suspended yeast, light white head that dissapates fairly quickly.

Bready lemon aroma, hint of clove, not very complex aroma.

Slightly sour citrus flavor dominates, finishes sour and slightly bitter. Bubbly but not overly carbonated, mouthfeel starts somewhat creamy but finishes dry.

Moderately drinkable and refreshing, sourness might get tiring.

Appearance- Pours a slightly hazy straw colo. Decent frothy white head that has some retantion, with continueing effervecenace for several minutes. No lacing.

Aroma- Has a grainy, caramel aroma that has a lot of nutty overtones. No clove, no banana.

Taste- Fairly wheaty. More bitter than most hefes. Kind of has a puckering quality. No citrus taste like a lot of hefes have.

Mouthfeel- Light bodied. Slightly less carbonation than a lot of hefes, but still fairly refreshing.

Drinkability- Failry drinkable. Nothing unusually good or bad.

Massively bubbled cornmeal yellow beneath a gargantuan head of cotton white that is both stiff and unsticky. The end result is remarkable persistence and no more than a few scraps of sudsy lace. The huge escape of gas on crown cracking was not a good sign. Sure enough, the beer is as overcarbonated as they come. That almost always impacts my experience in a negative way, but we'll see.

The nose is pale malty with an overlay of grassy, spicy hops. I think I'm smelling ground clove, but no banana esters are evident. It's hard to tell from the aroma alone whether a true hefe weizen yeast strain was used or whether this is an American pale wheat ale with a greater than usual amount of noble hops. I'm guessing it's the latter.

After several mouthfuls, I still can't tell. There's quite a bit of spiciness, but it tastes more hop-derived than yeast-derived to me. In any case, this isn't a great version of either one of those styles. Part of my lack of enthusiasm stems from the choatic mouthfeel. It's hard to notice complexity, assuming it even exists, when so many bubbles are pinging around my mouth like tiny, popping corn kernals.

I think I'll go with a spicier than usual APWA. Other than simple contributions from malt and hops, there isn't much to remember this one by. It's a decently well-brewed beer than suffers from a lack of imagination at the blueprint stage. I think I might drink the second half of the bomber with my lunch since drinking it solo might bore me to death.

Subsequent pours continue to result in foam explosions that threaten to overflow the glass. What all those bubbles do is make the mouthfeel harsh and brittle rather than soft and welcoming. I keep waiting for them to run out of steam, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I hate to knock a beer's mouthfeel when it obviously wasn't what the brewery intended, but they did bottle and release it in this condition, so...

Marin Hefe Weiss is probably my least favorite beer from this brewery. If I could get ahold of a properly carbonated bottle, the overall score might increase, but I doubt the flavor score would. Purchase at your own risk.