Magic Hat Circus Boy

Brewed by Magic Hat Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
South Burlington, Vermont USA

Tap @ Faegans. Not too cloudy... kind of clear even. Spicy not very much wheat in the flavor or aroma. Not very good at all. Never been a fan of Magic Hat beers, and this one is no exception.

Medium sized white head, retention is fair with some stringyy lace. Hazy, gold, yellow colored brew. Nose is gentle with citrus, lemon and faint bubblegum notes. Body is light, fairly effervescent and lightly oily on the palate. Lemony flavors up front with some faint bananna notes, light grassiness and light wheaty notes as well. Finish is fairly dry and lightly fruity, lemony. Not a bad little brew really. Heavily sedimented, aged 6 months or so? Surprisingly decent for a MH product. Would be a great summer quaffer!

bottle. pours a light orange/straw pour. hazy with carbonation but leaves no head. funky aroma, earthy, cut grass that has been left in the mower bag for a week, lemon and a hint of hops. A earthy mess that leaves you scratching your head. Why bother putting hefeweizen on the bottle. They should have labeled it yard scraps. At least the name gives it some justice. Circus boys are lost souls who rarely shower and the only time they get laid is when one of the freaks from the tent of horrors has had too much to drink. All that said I can put this down wthout too much difficulty. Kind of like the circus. You watch but you don’t know why.

12 oz. into a pint glass. Hazy tangerine orange/yellow with prevalent carbonation (looks like carbonated fruit drink, kinda like some of the meads I have seen); minimal, fast fading fizzy (not full and fluffy) head and no lacing. Aroma: a little bit of malt, a very small hint of fruit, grass, kind of larger-ish... pretty boring and weak. Palate: very fizzy on palate, almost like a soda (light feel otherwise). Flavor: in short, pretty flavorless; hints of malt on nose and grass on the finish, and dominated by watery flavor and carbonation. For a pretty popular company like Magic Hat, I would figure that a test batch of this would lead the brewers to move on to something else; I wonder why they found it suitable to mass produce. Im by no means an expert on this brew style, but to me this beer is very flavorless and uninteresting. After I rated this, I read the other ratings and wanted to add this disclaimer... perhaps I got a strange (old or gone-bad) bottle because I didn’t get any hints of the lemon, spice, or citrus that everyone else agrees upon, so maybe my score isn’t fair. oh well.

Deep hazy amber hued yellow pour with no head to speak of. The aroma is unique, I was not sure what I was experiencing until I read the description...It must be the lemon grass. The flavor starts with a strong lemon grassy flavor, then follows into some mellow malts. There are strong citrus notes through out the tasting. the finish is fast, but there is a hint of an aftertast, mostly citrus malts. Very odd. The beer is light to med bodied, and pretty enjoyable.

Bottle from hopdog. Hazy orange yellow color. Aroma is of strong lemon. Very strong lemon flavor, almost lemonade like, with some wheat, chalk and grass. Becomes moderately sweet at the end. Highly carbonated. Light and would be extremely refreshing on a hot day.

Bottle. Big rush of lemon and grass in the nose, a fairly sizable (and nice!) dose of malt, with coriander and orange rind. Hazy orange pour with a big, smooth and creamy beige head. Lots of visible carbonation. Taste, however, is a bit of a letdown; spicy grassy notes with muddled citrus (more orange than lemon) and a lesser quality malt than was hinted at by the nose. Decent wheat flavor, but the body is thinned and also leans toward grain. Touch of herbal meringue. Crisp and slightly numbing. This certainly isn’t a Hefeweizen, but, though I’m not going to give it a huge score, this would probably pair extremely well with certain dishes (say, Thai) - and I’m usually the one to mock such advice.

Pours a cloudy orange amber color with a 1 finger white fizzy head. Has a nose of banana, orange, coriander, caramel. Tastes pretty much like an over-sweetened Hefe... I don’t really get the lemongrass in it. There is quite a large citrus component, but I get that more as orange. A little bit medicinal as well. Medium bodied. It would probably be kind of refreshing in the summer and if it weren’t last in the line of pretty solid beers I’ve been drinking today.