Stone Coast High Rollers Wheat

Brewed in Portland, Maine, but tapped at Sunday River Brewing in Bethel, Maine--Golden hazy body with small wispy head. Not a very substantial proffering. Grainy, slightly hefe-esque. Gritty, earthy, watery. Mediocre at best.

6 ounce draught sample at the Vermont Brewer’s Fest (July 2007). Hazy light gold with a huge lasting frothy head and thick lacing; don’t often get a hefe at a festival that looks this good....very sour and wheaty aroma, like wheat bran in buttermilk, banana-clove impressions are muted....creamy body, fairly sharp and dry, has a somewhat Belgian yeast profile though I doubt that’s anything more than coincidental, lightly mineralic, dry and bitter at the finish, estery qualities muted.....somewhat thin on the finish. Overall, OK.

On tap at the Great Lost Bear. Pours a light golden murky yellow with a little fizzy white head. Aroma is mostly biscuity but there’s some hints of citrus and fruits. Flavors are pretty simple, citrus, grass, hops, wheat, and yeast. Overall pretty bland and boring.

Draught pint at the Great Lost Bear, 8/18/06.
Thoroughly cloudy, pale-gold/straw body sports a briefly-lived white head, which fizzles to a ring, leaving little/no lacing.
Some muted banana in the nose is hinted at, but then blown away by bitter hops? I guess that’s what it is. Dry, with a leafy, herbal pungency and yielding, only minimally, to light cloves, creamed wheat and strong doughiness (white dough, some honey). Some citrus peel notes combine with the bitter hops and the banana is lasting, though never much more than an afterthought in the nose. Strength is rather weak, dulled by the heavy yeast clouding the liquid.
Straw, dough, heavy wheat smoothness and nips of hop bittering, almost cascade-like press in to the palate upon first sip. The banana is minimal and fades in to a watery/wheat body that is only bolstered by some carbonation, initially, becoming too wet after warming/breathing. Some honey and lemon-flavored angel food cake-like notes battle with the heavy wheat, while the palate is somewhat bitten by the bitterness, on end. It’s certainly a unique take, and the hops don’t fatigue the palate, there just don’t seem to be enough other malt flavors going on. VERY clean; guess they just used their house yeast? That or they fermented this at a very low temperature for the style. Quenching, no alcohol apparent. Touches of breadiness and hay/straw-like graininess are the extent of the malt contributions after the palate adjusts. Pretty high ratio of water-to-malt, it seems to me. But the hop bitterness helps to clear the palate and does add some livliness. Dosen’t impart much flavor, though (nettles, lemons, grass).