Davenport Supercharged
Brewsters Brewing Company & Restaurant - Eleventh Avenue

 

Billed as a "red hefeweizen", this rotational offering from Brewsters is a murky reddish or ruddy caramel color (rather unusual) with a little tan froth and ample carbonation. Nose is heavy on classic weizen banana, with some sweet brown spice and fresh orchard fruit, apple or perhaps pear, generally smells sweet with some floral jasmine notes which I assume must derive from the hops. Tastes less sweet than the aroma would suggest. Here one certainly gets some toffee and candied bananas, along with sour green fruit, fresh tobacco, a whiff of smoke that melds with the yeasty sweetness to create a bit of a smoked corn husk vibe (a tad reminiscent of a Scotch ale), and a little wet blanket funk. Some leafy hops emerge in the semi-dry finish, which features a pleasant residual rich malt character. A decent amount of sour and smoky character often associated with different styles such as English porters or the aforementioned Scotch ales. Low on classic hefeweizen spicy clove phenolics. There are light (blonde) and darker hefeweizens and this brew falls somewhere between a dark hefe like Schneider Tap 7 and a dunkleweizen in terms of color and body, which I suppose justifies the "red hefeweizen" moniker along with the toffee/caramel malt character. Who really knows where this dividing line is ... Has some unique attributes worth experiencing at least once.

20oz pint at the YEG downtown location. I'll have to look up what the name of this beer means later.

This beer appears a rather murky dark brownish amber colour, with one finger of tightly foamy, weakly creamy dirty white head, which leaves some splotchy peninsular lace around the glass as it slowly ebbs southwards.

It smells of smoked wheat malt, earthy yeast, cooked bananas, a bit of white pepper, and earthy, weedy hops. The taste is more semi-sweet, lightly torched wheat malt, fairly heady fruity banana mush, bready yeast, bland table-top black pepper, a building caramel cream sweetness, and AWOL, er, hops.

The bubbles are present, and a tad astringent at times, the body a sturdy medium weight, and a bit too edgy to be deemed all that smooth. It finishes well off-dry, the sugary wheatiness hardly tempered by the yeast and drying fruit notes.

A rather edgy, somewhat toasty hefe. It's called a 'Red Hefeweizen', yet any redness may well be lost in the mire. Agreeable, I suppose, but not all that memorable, for whatever they're trying to get at here.