Samuel Adams James Madison Dark Wheat Ale

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

Pours a hazy dark brown with a one finger head that fades slowly to a thin soapy cap, leaving behind a pretty nice sheeting of lace behind. Smell; there's some wheat like aromas, but on the subdued side. Some sweet malts are also present, but once again on the weak side. I think that about sums up the aroma, thin and weak. Taste; as with the smell, the wheat is there, just not as prominant as I would have expected, since this is labeled a wheat beer. There's a bit of a sweet toffee maltiness, as well as a bit of apples, which makes this a little interesting, with absolutely no hop bitterness to speak of. The flavors are actually not that bad at all, it's just not a very complex, or exciting. Mouthfeel/Drinkability; Mouthfeel is light bodied, and in no way resembles what I expect in a wheat beer, but it does have a nice drinkability that would make it easy to knock back a few of these in a row. I went into this one with an open mind (even having read some of the reviews), but this one was not a very good wheat beer. I actually expected to like this one a little more than I did.

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

Poured a murky brown with a good light brown head that left a fair amount of lace on the glass the flavor was not to bad wheat and roased malts mouthfeel was thin i was was not expecting to much from this brew

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

THis beer poured a nice muddy medium brown color topped off by a medium thick tan colored head that left adequate lace down the sides of the glass. The aroma was sweet smokey malts and a little bit toffee. The mouthfeel was medium bodied and quite drinkable. The flavor was a pretty good blend of smoke, sweet malts, wheat, toffee and some light fruity tones as well.

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

This is the 2nd of the Patriot Collection that I didn't really care for. Aroma was sweet with a bit of brown sugar, chocolate and vanilla. Flavors were really subdued with malts and nuts. I didn't get any smoky character in this. Not horrible, but far from excellent.

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

Pours a brown body with a good, lasting head. The aroma has a bit of malt nuttiness and melon fruit, but the flavor falls short somehow being a bit one-dimensional.

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

It is an interesting beer to try. It pours a burnt copper with a white fizzy head that quickly goes away. Smelled of malt and something that I could not describe. Taste was interesting. A little tart with plenty malt flavor and kind of a watery texture. Overall it was an above average beer. I don't thing it is worth the price though.

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

3 of the four-beer set. No, I haven't had #2 yet, so yes, I'm doing this beer "out of order" -- so what.

And to be perfectly honest, this entire beer makes me say "So what?" Said to be something of an American Dark Wheat Ale, in my mind this is just yet another example of a Dunkel Weizen -- minus the banana&clove aspects that I enjoy.

Or, to put it another way, this beer strikes me as a rather boring Widmer clone..., darker, but not one iota more interesting.

It's not a bad drop, by any means..., and it is fairly approachable, all-told. Enough gumption in the mouthfeel to matter. And the aroma, while sans banana&clove, isn't bad -- hints of some woodsiness in the otherwise staid malty nose.

Ditto for the flavor profile: hints of wood (oak?), with a rather "steady-as-she-goes" mouthfeel. Some cloying aspects in the middle and the backend that I can surely do without, however.

But really? With all the fluff of this beer being made with hand-smoked malt, and red and white oak from land onced owne by James Madison, and so on, and so forth..., when you put all that aside, and get down to the nitty-gritty -- i.e. "Would I want to drink a bunch of this?" -- I tend to think that this beer just doesn't do it for me. Again, not much more than a rather dull tasty Dunkleweizen, IMHO....

Music: Enslaved's "Ruun".
//TB

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

Appears thick and cloudy with tall, creamy head. The faint aroma is sweet and malty. The flavor begins sweet and ends dry with pronounced toffee and vanilla notes. Smokiness is incredibly subdued, which worked for me. Medium bodied and creamy.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Sampled from bottle. Pours murky brown-gold with an ample, sudsy white head. The stool sample brown is unattractive. Its aroma has notes of sour fruit. Balanced flavor has noticable amounts of rye. A good spicy character with tart, dry finish. Medium-bodied and well-carbonated. A unique, drinkable beer.

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

Well, this will be authentic recipe No. 3 so here it goes. The aroma is lacking with some very faint dark fruits coming though as well as some slight sweetness and maybe some vanilla bean but it was hard to pull overtones from the aroma on this one. The appearance is a very cloudy and muddy rustic-orange to amber when held to the light with a medium-size head on top that quickly diminishes to a light and thin lacing that is creamy and off-white in color. The mouthfeel is light-bodied with some decent smokey complexity but is lacking some balance with a palate that is thick and very coating. The flavor is of dark fruit with maybe some faint bananas as well as some slight vanilla with an aftertaste that is a bit smokey on the backend but I was expecting more given the fact that the malted-barley was smoked and has a finish that is clean and crisp as well as wet-like and very thrist-quenching. Overall, not a bad beer but a bit boring for my taste, but all in all, not a bad offering here.