McGuires Hefeweizen

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

It was a hefe... and that's about it. It had all of the requisite hefe-ness about it, but nothing truly stellar. Very drinkable, however. Drawn a hazy, golden orange with a frothy thick white head. Citrus, banana and corriander present. Medium in the moth - clean finish - nice lacing.

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

After a surprisingly decent Porter (a beer that I had previously dismissed), I rolled the dice and tried out this Summer Seasonal offering. Well...., let's just say you can't win `em all.

Immediately reminded me of the "Hefeweizen" I had at The Coast Brewery in Biloxi MS -- way too clear for the Hefeweizen style. And while I'm no-where what my bud Darren would term a "style Nazi", I do think that the beer should at least be in the same league as what it's labeled as.... Rather than looking a bit cloudy and mysterious, this looked more like a typical hum-drum ultra-Pale Lager.

But while Coast Brewing's "Beau Rivage Hefeweizen" looked boring, it was still tasty overall. This particular Hefeweizen, on the other hand, has many of the same weird faults as it's neighbor along the Gulf Coast (i.e. too-clear appearence, washed-out/sythentic mouthfeel), it doesn't have of the positive aspects, either.

Dull and fairly listless, from beginning to end. Letting the beer warm up a little did little to improve either the aroma or the flavor. Yes, it has some extremely basic wheat-beer traits, but there was little here that told me that this was much of a Hefeweizen (or, considering the extreme filtering of this beer, Kristalweizen).

Poundable enough, but then again, why bother? Too many better offerings at McGuire's to really want to bother with this, IMO.

A good beer for that stubborn friend of yours who won't touch "that dark and bitter stuff", but for most folks, this is neither here nor there. Pass.
//TB