Hops and Barley Brewing Mallard Bay Raspberry Wheat Ale

Formerly brewed at Hops and Barley Brewing Co.
Style: Fruit Beer
Dubuque, Iowa USA

Serve in Flute

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(12 oz bottle: Wine Time in La Jolla, CA) Found this one in the beer cooler at a wine store in La Jolla, and while it’s not the greatest fruit beer, considering I’m not real fond of raspberry wheats in general, this one isn’t bad. The nose jumps right out at you, and it’s very fruity, and clearly raspberry, as opposed to being perfumy, artificial and plasticy like many in this style. The flavor is less impressive, but again, the sweet raspberry flavor actually tastes like real raspberries. The wheat base is very light and hardly noticeable behind the fruit. There’s a mild bitterness in the finish, but hops seems almost like an afterthought here, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing with this style of beer in my opinion. Light to medium in body, but it doesn’t seem watery or thin for the style. The color is pale golden and clear, but there’s plenty of darker particles suspended in the beer. Off-white head is very small out of the bottle, and within a few minutes, there’s no head, not even a rim around the edge. I just might have to get another bottle of this stuff to compare with Oxford Raspberry Wheat, a beer I remember liking quite a bit back when I lived in DC.