Portsmouth Dunkelweizen

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

July 2010 - A darned fine example of the style. Pour was chestnut brown, no head or lacing. A nice rich flavor of banana, roast and clove. A typical description, but rich and a nice balance of all the classic flavors. Well done.

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

An average dunkelweisse, but entirely acceptable. Huge, thick foamy head. Nice color with hints od spice and clove. Heavily peaty - much more so than is necessary. It did, however, make the beer interesting. It's just that sometimes "interesting" isn't really that good.

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

Extremely aggressively carbonated as a very soft pour nets me seven fingers of foamy, lightly browned head (including one above the rim of my glass) and some foam overflow on my desk. The beer is a dark plum color that shows a hazy, red amber color when held up to the light. The aroma has lots of clove, a touch of up front banana, a toasty malt character and a definite smokiness in the finish. The smokiness has overtones of burning plastic to it, though it never gets really out of hand and really reminds me of Peat smoked malt. Definitely interesting, certainly not bad, but I was not expecting the smoke.

The taste has a sweetness to it up front with some light clove notes, the smokiness then kicks in adding smoky flavors as well as phenolic notes that seem to be a little harsh at times. This has a rich maltiness to it up front that is quite nice (unfortunately this is quickly drowned out by the salty peat smoke). The peat smoke really lingers on in the palate too and interferes with subsequent sips; it is really hard to pull out any other flavors because of this.

A very interesting interpretation of a Dunkel Weizen. I think that beech-wood smoked malt would have been a better choice here as it would have melded better with the traditional Weizen flavors (indeed I have had good smoked Weizens in Bamberg before). Ultimately the Peat-smoked malt clashes with the rest of the beer, such that this really just doesn't work for me. I do like the attempt though as it is an interesting try.