A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 131, Troegs DreamWeaver Wheat

Hi everyone!

It's been a long day.  The brewery out back got it's toilet back.  In the 40's when it was built there were facitilities, but I  removed them (two heads) to conserve space and because they were destroyed by time.  So now, we have a dunny!  No walls yet.  HAHAHAHA!

Anyway,  tonight's beer is a hefeweizen and those are typified by using half barley and half wheat for the grains and a phenolic (Belgian-like) yeast that has aromas and flavors of bananas, bubble gum, apples, etc... and can finish on the dry side with a fairly lively amount of carbonation.  This beer fits that description to the "T".

The beer pours hazy and gold with an excellent two finger soft white head that lasts and leaves pretty cool lacing patterns on the glass.

The aromas are just like the description of a hefeweizen with notes of banana, bubblegum, and apple floating above a nice pale malt sweetness.  This bottle has a hint of skunk aroma to it as well and I believe that to be not of the breweries fault, but the bottle may be old, but it's hard to tell as the date has been worn off.  A few points will have to be deducted though.  I have had this on tap and it does not have the skunk aroma.

The beer starts off light and pale malt sweet with light phenolic flavours of bubblegum and tart apple only very faint and the beer then smooths out with a noticeable wheat presence and then finally takes on some very nice mild hop bitterness, only VERY mild and spicy.  Some skunk presence as my last burp can attest to.

The mouthfeel is a bit thin, not overly so, which makes it highly sessionable, but it seems a little light.  The carbonation is lively but when the wheat comes through about mid-way on the palate, the carbonation mellows.  The beer goes through some nice transformations!

Overall I am going to say that this beer's complexity is really neat!  It all works well and goes through a pretty cool transition.  The only complaint towards the beer is that it is a little thin and light in mouthfeel.  The skunk flavour is a big NO-NO but not this beer's fault.  AND it's not overt so it's actually not all that detracting.  Would I recommend this beer?  Hell YES!  Especially for summer!  4 out of 5 for this beauty!

Get off the dunny from drinking that macro crap and try this beer!  As the end to Troegs week closes, I would recommend this brewery!  I think their creations are fantastic and probably one of the better ones from Pennsylvania!

-Wiss