Name: Sunrise Weissbier

Brewer: Victory

Style: Hefeweizen

Vintage: 2007

Cellared On: October 12, 2007

Original Tasting: November 9, 2007

You may ask why I’m doing a tasting of a summer seasonal release in the fall. Well why the hell wouldn’t I? I was enjoying stouts and porters during summer heat waves, so why not enjoy a light summer brew in the fall?

Weissbier pours a light orange color with the murky cloudiness you would expect from a German-style wheat beer. I get a lot of clove on the nose, with some background smells of bright fruit and a cereal-like maltiness that I assume is from the wheat in this brew. A fantastic thick fizzy head formed with the pour, which gradually transformed in to a lusciously creamy topping.

This brew is very crisp and light on the tongue with a complex flavor profile. Wheat dominates the taste at first, but yeast flavors quickly kick in and bring into play a number of fruity esters. The fruitness is all about citrus here, with lemon and orange being the most prominent. A yeasty spicy zing pops in here, mostly coming through as a background clove-like flavor. There’s a touch of honey sweetness also floating around.

The finish is long and dry, with flavors of citrus fruits and clove lingering.

Six Month Tasting: April 18th, 2008

Everything started out the same here. Same beautiful color, same malty flavor on the nose. But where did the fruit and spice go? I couldn’t taste any fruity esters to speak of, maybe just hints of banana flavor, but that’s it. No trace of clove flavor or any other type of spiciness. I did still enjoy the malt/wheat flavor, but there was nothing special going on.  Slight bitterness on the very quick finish.

Not nearly as good as when it was fresh, but I guess that’s not any big surprise.

Cellar Outlook: There’s probably not much chance for improvement here, but I’ve been wanting to get a hefeweizen in the cellar just to see what happens. There’s a drink before date printed on the bottle of June 2008, so the brewer doesn’t have high expectations of longevity here either. Maybe we’ll see a little extra complexity with a year under it’s belt, but I kinda doubt it.

Six Month Cellar Outlook - Are you kidding me? Forget about it. This brew is dead. Drink it fresh, and fresh only.

Next Tasting: October 2008

Jason

jason@brewbasement.com

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