Waterfront Wheat
Keweenaw Brewing Company

Originally reviewed June 11 2007. On tap at the brewpub. Aroma tickles forth with a hexanous blast of tires and latex, confused with Indonesian raspberry candies. The traditional aromas get muddled with raspberry sauce and make a bit of a mess in the nose. Pours in murky pale orange, tinted rose and metallic in the corners. Head blushes. Flavor is a menagerie of banana, fruited chocolate, malt, candied raspberry gelato and some malt base. Acerbic and dry, seemingly well attenuated enough to stay away from stickiness. But it’s an awkward pairing, trying to blend Hefe phenols with the spritzy sourness of Framboise. Seeds and hop dust dry out the backend. Peculiar interaction of raspberries and wheat oil. I feel as if these brewers have some good ideas and try unique pairings, but don’t make the point of executing them well. Much like the Mogiana Malt, I think this could have been a winner, if they’d honed the Raspberry character and restrained some of the yeast products. Malt quality suffered. But, the spritzy bright lemon of the Hefe works. Really, as a fruit beer it’s above the majority of the field, for staying clean, unique, drinkable and not getting sickly sweet.