Valley Weizen

Tap at Brewhaven. Sweet banana, wheat, and citrus aroma. Cloudy golden with a small white head. Banana, wheat malt, and citrus flavor. Medium body. I was looking for clove or coriander, but just didn’t get it from this beer. Good, but didn’t blow me away.

On tap at the brewery. Pours a heavily hazed golden with a white head. Cloves are the main aroma with just a bit of mustiness. Flavor also leads with cloves and is slightly tart with wheat, bubble gum, and a bit of sweetness. A solid hefeweizen.

bottle - The bottle says "hefe weizen" in small print on the front of the label, so at least in the brewer’s opinion there’s no confusion about the style. I can see why there is some confusion here though. It seemed like a cross of hefe and dunkel weizens to me. The beer pours unusually dark for the style with a very thin head. It has a yeasty, malt aroma. The sweet flavor has plenty of yeast, wheat, and some caramel notes. There’s a touch of fruit though it struck me more like a Dunkel in that respect rather than the citrus typical of a Hefe. It’s an interesting take on the style. I see the ratebeer description says hefe’s can even be dark brown. I’m just not use to seeing it.

Bottle. Clove and over-ripe banana aroma. Tannish yellow color - cloudy with little head. Mildly sweet banana, clove and wheat malt flavor and a light lemon finish. A very well crafted beer that is comparable to its German brethern.

Let me start off by saying that I sampled several beers from this brewer over the past weekend... and all of them taste the same (in a way). There’s an underlying burnt-rice flavor to all of their beers that I just can’t get past. Bottle. Amber in color with a small head... flavor of burnt rice, slight clove, slight banana. Kinda plain and boring.

Hazy amber colour with a dense, fast-dying tan head. Aroma almost purely of yeast. Some spice and coriander seed comes out, but a bit of sweetness is also noticed. In addition, I definately smell some hops in the nose of this one! Medium to Full-bodied; Spicey sweet initial flavour with some cloves and wheat popping through. Aftertaste actually very mild and subtle-only characterising a bit of the wheat and yeast characteristics. Overall, a very nice wheat, although the beer is a bit dark (just as the Commercial Description notes) compared to others in the style. Overall, definately worth trying and is a fairly good representation of the style from Americans! I was lucky enough to get this twelve ounce bottle in a recent trade with BigBadBear63 and sampled it on 18-December-2003. Thanks again Mike!

Dark mainly because of the heavy yeast cloudiness, not from dark malt, so its not a dunkel weizen. Very cloudy copperish color, big rocky white head. Sweet and spicy nose with mainly clove and lemon zest. Flavor also clovey and lemony, with only the smallest hint at banana. Quite characterful and refreshing. Perfect match for the bratwurst served at the brewpub.