Bert Grants Mandarin Hefeweizen

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

This beer has a pleasing mandarin aroma to it. It is not overdone at all and is at just about the perfect level for a fruit beer. There is a citric mandarin flavor that is the predominant flavor but like the aroma it was not overdone at all. The fruit melds well with this clean light bodied beer quite well. This is a nice refreshing beer that would be great on a hot summer afternoon.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 5

Can someone explain to me how this is a fruit beer? I mean, mandarin in the name, check. Mandarin tree on the bottle, check. Mandarin in the nose? Mandarin in the nose? Hello? Zippo. OK. Mandarin in the flavor? Zip there too. What aroma I did find was a pretty below average attempt at a hefeweizen, light apricots and light wheat aroma. Appearance was hazy, orangish/yellow with minimal head and barely any conditioning to speak of. Mouthfeel was light, but flat. Flavors weren't much to speak of either, and again, I couldn't get any orange. I could get malt, some grains and that's about it. Overall it was wet and cool but I was really hoping for more. Pretty much a let down.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

bottle 04.18.04 Pours a clouded orangey gold color with little head but a trace that lasts. Aroma of fuzzy navel (?) and pink grapefruit. Smells yummy, but I expected something different than apricot on nose. Flavor is odd. Dry, pulp free, watered down OJ. Definitely mandarin orange, not other orange. Infact, there's even a tin can aftertaste. This beer does NOT remind me of hefe, but it is similarly refreshing. Very quaffable, but not so tasty that I want more. Huh. finish is uncluttered metallic citrus. This beer makes me rethink the other beers I labels as 'citrus' flavored. If nothing else, it's unique, one extra overall point for that. Sort of Orangina-ish.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 6

The beer starts out with a lot of promise. The body is a nice cloudy medium orange tan and the head is thick, soupy and white. The fizziness of many of the Grant's beers I've had is missing and that's a good thing. Good lacing. The aroma doesn't screw things up. There's a pleasant orange scent but little else. I think I might pick up a few esters and a little wheaty malt. The flavor isn't bad. It just leaves you wanting. Wanting more of the orange, wanting more banana and clove (being an American hefe, there's little to none of that) wanting more crisp wheat maltiness. More of something. It does live up to it's promise to be refreshing and easy-drinking. This idea could very likely work if it were a true German-style hefeweizen with plenty of the esters and clove (cloves and oranges go well together after all and my mom's apple salad was made with orange juice instead of cream and liberal with bananas and it was great) The only problem here is that the base beer is just too boring.

Aroma: 2 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 3

Peach colored brew with a thin lace head. Apricot citrus nose(not hop citrus) that seems artificial. Carbonation is fizzy. This is the perfect Back of the high school underage wannabe brew.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

An odd single that I picked up while shopping with my fiance at the local Trader Joes. I normally wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole, but for something like $0.60, I figured what the hell.

Looked decent enough, though a bit lacking in foam production and head retention. A bit too clear for the style too..., almost a Kristalweizen with fruit than anything else.

Ugh. There's the rub. The fruit. Specially, the sugary-sweet orange twang to all aspects of this beer. Reminded me immediately of June `98, buying a plastic bottle of orange juice while waiting for the liberty launch to take me from Phuket City (Thailand) back to the ship. The orange juice was mixed with raw cane sugar, giving it a disturbingly acrid-sweet vibe that definately didn't meld very well with my Singha-induced stupor.

But I digress. This particular beer has little to go for it except the mandarin orange. No balance, no malt- or hop-profiles (the later seemingly a cardinal sin for a Grant's beer). Comes across way too sweet and one-dimensional for my tastes.

Not dump-worthy, but definately nothing that I would ever seek out again.
//TB

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Light gold color. Medium white foamy head. Aroma is fruity, citrusy and slightly sweet. A medium bodied Hefeweizen, with a very definite mandarin orange flavor. The orange flavor is more of the peel and less of fruit if that makes any sense. Itís light and refreshing, and fairly innocuous. There are a few hints of banana and clove. Creamy texture. Interesting beer. It would make a great beer for a hot summer day. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 3 | Mouthfeel: 1 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 2

Pours a frothy white head w/ a hazy yellow gold body. The Mandarin ’Orange’ in this is very artificial tasting. The body is thin, watery. KrausenJockey hits the nail on the head when he says that it smells like Orange Crush. This was really disappointing. There was nothing hefeweizen about this beer. Drain pour.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Pours a cloudy gold that you woudl expect. The head is barely existent, but there. The aroma is a malty oranges with a hint of black pepper. The taste is a light orange with corriander and some bread crust. A nice change of pace. Good lawnmower beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Very cool looking beer poured into the glass..very unfiltered look..pleasantly hazy orang colour..small pure white head..good lacing. Nice strongish aroma of tangerines etc..not too over powering though..some wheat undertones. The taste after the initial malt is dominated by the mandarin orange..leaves a bitter after taste..its ok. pretty good feel on the tongue..not too thin. A good drink for the hot weather..I liked this experiment.