Coastal Fog Bavarian Wheat

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6

It really is either hit or miss with anything that Coast Range makes. Okay, so this is contract brewed, the theory still applies. Missing the mark of a true German hefe, it still is able to fufill it's responsibility of being an American hefe. Light cracker nose, subtle light fruits. No bananna, no clove, no bubblegum...hmmm. Appearance is a hazy yellowish/gold with a lacy 1 finger thick head. Flavor is lightly hopped, more carbonated than I care for...and missing all the flavors and nuances of a nice German hefe. And it says on the bottle Bavarian wheat? If you buy it, don't expect a whole lot.

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

A hazy, yellow-gold colored beer sits underneath and initially one-finger thick, fairly quickly disappearing, pale, off-white colored head. The aroma is lightly tart with notes of green apple, hints of melon and some cracker-like malt. Really the aroma is fairly clean, with the fruitiness being the most distinct note; after the Paulaner Hefe I just drank, this seems pretty lame for a Bavarian Hefe. Let's see what the flavors bring.

Again the beer is tart, with ample notes of wheat & malt. It is quite clean, with perhaps a touch of green apple fruitiness. Really this is just a light, American style wheat beer. Nondescript and just a vehicle for the wheat & malt flavors. It has a light sweetness to it, a touch of grassiness (from both hop and grain perhaps) as well as a very light bitterness. Maybe there is a hint of clove here, which would be the only thing close to the traditional Bavarian wheat beer yeast flavors. Definitely a disappointment & certainly not deserving of the right to put Bavarian Wheat beer on the label, maybe I should have taken this literally that they meant they used a Bavarian strain of wheat for this beer. This is certainly not a bad beer, and I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I had thought I was buying an American style wheat beer.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

~ Contract brewed for BevMo's own "Coastal Fog Brewing Company" by Coast Brewing of Gilroy CA.

When the cashier came to this 22-oz bottle as she was ringing me up, she yelped with glee. "Wow! I didn't know that they started putting this into big bottles! I've only seen it in six-packs. Cool! This stuff is my favorite!" And while I generally hold the opinions of the staff of Beverages & More in low esteem, her enthusiasism for this beer did give me a glimmer of hope for this BevMo-only brand, and it's rather oddly-named "Bavarian Wheat Beer".

A fleeting hope misplaced? Well, while I wouldn't say that this knocked my socks off, I can't say it's a horrible beer, either. Like most ever Coastal Fog beer I've had, this is strictly C-Grade stuff.

The first oddity with this beer is that is does have a modicum of "Germanic esters" in the nose -- read: banana&clove. More than I would have given this beer credit for, considering the track-record of this particular "Beer Marketing Company".

But...., at the same time, this is also utterly and completely filtered to oblivion. So, I can only guess that this pseudo-filtered-Hefeweizen would instead be listed here as more of a Kristal Weizen, if nothing else.

Anyway, that having been said, what about the rest of this beer? Well, it doesn't look good. Not at all. No floaties, but also no head, no big-mounding-wheat-beer foam, minimal carbonation. Pale-pale yellow body, sitting in a glass. That's all. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Aside from the decent nose, at least the flavor profile isn't a complete "Snore-Fest `06". Barely enough things going in the front and middle to keep things tolerable. Room for improvement? You betcha. Not much "grainy-wheatness" for my liking -- a little too smooth and nuetral and noncommital.

But I've had much worse wheat beers than this one, so at least it has that going for it. And, again, this is better than what I've normally seen from Coastal Fog over the past 7-8 years of it's existence.

For the price ($2.59) this isn't bad, but I'd just as well rather cough up a few extra dimes and nickels for a real wheat beer, with real yeast in suspension, in a real 500mL bottle from real Germany..., over this one.

{shrug} You can do worse.

Music: Tool's "10,000 Days"
//TB