Schlafly Raspberry Hefeweizen

Brewed by Saint Louis Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Maplewood, Missouri USA

Serve in Flute, Shaker

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Pours a cloudy amber color with a blush of pink and a bubbly finger of head that dissipates fairly quickly leaving a few strands of lace. The aroma is light tart with a hint of wheat but not really any raspberry fruitiness that I expected. The taste is also tart and has a bit of raspberry and grape skin. I detect some wheat flavor and also a mustiness that may be coming from the wheat. Just a small amout of bitterness. Mouthfeel is watery and light/medium bodied with a fizzy high carbonation. A dull beer all the way around.

Pint on tap. Lightly hazy and golden with a small ring of bubbles. Mild nose of berry and wheat with a touch of lemon. Tastes of raspberry, toast, lemon, dry grass, and a hint of honey. Light-medium body is balanced and has medium carbonation. The raspberry gives this one slightly more character than the regular Schlafly Wheat Ale masquerading as a "hefeweizen", but neither one is worth ever having again.

Clear, light amber, thin white cap. Very soft raspberry aroma. Even softer taste...by that, I mean weaker. Very watery and bland. A glass of carbonated water with a splash of generic wheat beer and artificial raspberry. Dismal.

Bottle. This is pretty bad. Slightly hazy orange pour with a smaller white head. Smells a little like vomit and artificial raspberry. Very light bland palate. Drain pour.

Tasting at Red White and Bleu. Pinkish gold with thin white head. Raspberry and wheat, as expected. More tart than sweet. Better than expected, but expectations were very low.

Rated 4/6/13. 12 oz bottle into a pint glass. A: Pours a hazy reddish-amber color. The head is a two finger white shade. Extremely frothy in texture, it doesn’t have the best retention by any means, but it leaves some nice lacing on the glass. S: There definitely is a note of raspberry in here...only problem is, it comes across in a rather unpleasant manner - dare I say like a cross between stomach acid and pure butter. Yikes, not good. T: Better than the crappy aroma indicated. It’s still hilariously buttery at times, but there is a decent raspberry flavor in the midtaste. The more I sip, the less the butter flavors appear and the more it transforms into a generic wheat character with augmenting raspberry notes. On the plus side, there’s minimal cloying sweetness. M: Light and crisp, with strong carbonation. If the flavors were better, this would be spectacularly easy to drink - it still kind of is, though. O: Not Schlafly’s finest work by any stretch. The lack of overdone sweetness is good, so it’s only a subpar wheat ale (NOT a hefeweizen, damn you!) with a bit of raspberry tartness instead of a disastrously artificial sugar bomb. Nothing I need to ever have again, however.

Pours a cloudy orangey pink color with a small pinkish head. Aroma is all raspberry. Taste is sweet with raspberries and wheat.

Pours cloudy red-gold with a thin white head. Aroma is raspberry, light tartness, dusty grain and lemon. Flavor is about the same, raspberry is in the forefront, some light fruity yeast finishes with raspberry seeds and light cereal grain. Palate is light off dry and a little chalky with a moderate carbonation. Decent, nothing here really reminds me of a hefe in any way other than some light wheat notes.

Refrigerated 12 oz. brown bottle poured into a weizen glass. Pours translucent orange with small off-white head which dissapates quickly. Little lacing, medium body, well carbonated, and grainy aroma. Taste is estery wheat, a little chalky, and some raspberry. More hefe than fruit, but boring.

Sampled on tap at the 2012 Schlafly Hop In The City festival. Pretty much what you’d expect: an unfiltered American wheat ale except infused with real raspberries. No true-to-style German Hefeweizen yeast characteristics. Cloudy pinkish amber color with off-white foam. Aromas and flavors of berries, sweet malt, familiar wheat, some chalky suspended yeast. I don’t love fruit beers, but I’ll admit this one is less flawed and tastes less artificial than most. I get why it’s popular.