21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon Wheat

Brewed by 21st Amendment Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
San Francisco, California USA

Can from 38th and 2nd street corner deli. Pour looks initially decent with a hazy straw color and fluffy white head, which fades quickly. Taste is yeasty.. fruit flavors are obvious but not tasty. The only watermelon I am picking up is the white part of a watermelon that’s near the skin.. I feel like it tastes more like a cantaloupe? A musky hay flavors are in the aroma and mouth as well. Overall, not impressed but it could be worse.

Can as a gift from my buddy JCB. Pours hazy dirty-orange with maybe the faintest pink tint. Quickly disappearing head, and then it just sits there looking a bit unattractive. Nose is wheat, watermelon, and some funk that one might get from a Belgian saison... not quite as good, but not bad. I dig it. Taste kicks in the watermelon even more, even a bit like candy, but still some funky wheat/yeast notes that are unexpected but welcome. Maybe this is a gimmick beer, but who woulda thunk it: I like it.

THOUGHTS: I didn’t think I’d like this much, because I’m not big on watermelon, but there really isn’t a ton of watermelon there. It is definitely fruity, but if it wasn’t call what it is, I don’t know if I would have guessed what fruit was in it. I should have tried it in the summer. It would have been a great thirst quencher during those three weeks that were actually hot. I gave it a bonus point for being better than the sum of its parts. TECHNICAL: Can. Poured a hazy, light yellow with an average to large, white head that mostly diminished. The aroma was light candy, fruit and slight watermelon. The initial flavor was lightly sweet and lightly acidic; while the finish was lightly sour. It was fruity with a little wheat, and slight watermelon. It was actually like drinking the juice that drips onto the plate after a slice of watermelon is consumed. The light body was a little watery then dry with fizzy carbonation and an extremely light astringent finish.

Can purchased at State Line Liquors. I said to myself, "I won’t believe the haters, maybe it’s good." There is no hate. This is just not a good beer. The rustic orange pour is handsome enough, the lively carbonation appealing, and even the faint watermelon aroma is fine (maybe watermelon bubble gum would’ve worked better though). But the resultant taste is more or less an acrid mess. Tough to finish, and if I’d been near a drain . . .

12 oz can
Thanks to Tom for sending this along. I did not have high expectations but this would not make a bad lawn mower beer for anyone who wanted something a bit different. As far as watermelon beers go however (unique as they are) better can be had.

Aroma / Appearance - Rosy gold with a faint white corona the aroma of apple Jolly Ranchers was not quite what I expected. Fruity but in a slightly different way it does not impress too much.

Flavor / Palate - Watermelon Jolly Ranchers make it clear what the focus of this rather one dimensional beer is. Light and fluid it is easy from start to finish. Coming from a can it is not the worst option but depending on the cost I would probably not be apt to buy more than a single every once in a while for the heck of it.

Location: 12 oz can from Gilly’s, 11/8/09

Aroma: The first whiff is fairly faint, as it breathes the fruitiness comes out, watermelon, grains, and honey wheat
Appearance: The pour is a slightly hazy banana yellow color with a very fizzy white head that dissipates pretty quickly
Flavor: The flavor is under-ripened watermelon (read: mouth-puckering bitterness) on top of a light wheat base
Palate: Man this one has a lot of carbonation, other then that the palate is basically light, thin, and quite watery
Overall Impression: I actually thought I was going to enjoy this one from the nose, it seemed like the fruit would be subtle enough not to overpower the beer (my biggest complaint with most fruit beers is that they allow the fruit to completely overpower everything that makes a beer a beer). However, with this one the nose was misleading, as the flavor was just not something I enjoyed much at all. I wavered before ending up on this score, but the bottom line is that this one didn’t work. I had the exact same reaction to this one that I have to under-ripe fruit, my mouth completely puckered into the old Keystone bitter beer face (and I love a good bitter beer), but this one just tasted like bad fruit. Anyway, I like the idea here, just not the execution, and I think this rant has gone on long enough...

Sample at GABF 2009. Pours a clear yellow color with little head. Aroma is floral with notes of fresh watermelon, ripe fruit, bread, light wheat, honey and caramel. Flavor is about the same. Light to medium body with a pleasing fruity finish. Interesting ale.

Can. Pours a hazy dark gold with a thick white head. Very toasty, biscuity cereal aroma with a frsh edge suggestive of melon. The palate carries more biscuity malt, with some wheaty notes and distinct but subtle watermelon in the finish. Not especially yeasty or wheaty to me, more biscuity and even toasty, but subtle on the fruit which keeps things intriguing. Finish is crisp and dry. Very different, in a good way.