Wells Banana Bread Beer (Bottle)

Brewed by Wells & Youngs
Style: English Strong Ale
Bedford, England

Bottle. Copper-amber beer with a cream coloed head. Big banana aroma with bready malts. Banana flavor with malt, grain, and mineral notes. Medium bodied. Malt and mineral lingers.

She poured a beautifully clear menagerie of oranges, ambers, garnets, and a splattering of copper. A puffy orangesicle head sports an impressively creamy consistency that stays puffy from the first quaff to the last. I don’t need to move from where I sit because the Banana Bread comes to me, but I do. As dip my nose deep into her awaiting aromatic bounty, I am met by bananas fresh, super soft, and bordering on over-ripe. There is a definite essence of cream to her nose which bespeaks of banana pudding, banana custard, and banana cream. Moist banana bread fresh from the oven steams while nuts and spices mingle. There is an essence of melted butter slathered atop the still slightly warm banana bread which compliments her already creamy nose. I am impressed; she really smells just like fresh home-made banana bread with nuts and spices and all that is nice. How will she taste though? Her nose gently nudges me along and before I realize it, I am drawing deep my first pleasantly tasty quaff of many more to follow. Her palate isn’t as overly rich and pungent as her nose which is a good thing. The Wells Banana Bread Beer comes in a chunky 16.9oz bottle which would be far too much if the beer was thick, heavy, and cloying in both weight and taste. Immediately all oral surfaces are rendered creamy and buttery, causing that oh-so-delicious licking of the lips after each quaff. A faint touch of bitterness resembling green banana skins and dry brown spices in the back cleanse my palate just in time for the next quaff. Make no doubt about it though; just as her nose promised, her body is the very essence of fresh banana bread. Rich bananas, slice, mixed in and cooked along with nuts, cinnamon, and nutmeg even as butter melts and coats my lips. The further along my supping adventure, her palate melds together wonderfully. Her creamy buttery mouthfeel hints of banana cream and banana pudding. There is a subtle and supple long finish which exudes essence-of banana pudding, spice, and nuts.

Delightfully tasty, playful, and surprisingly refreshing, I liked the Wells Banana Bread Beer quite a bit. I am still surprised by how much I enjoyed this beer, so much so that writing about it now stirs an intense craving. If you like bananas and banana bread then you will like this beer.

Pours amber with a white head. Aroma is malt, light hop and lots og banana. Flavour is malt, high bitterness, light hop and lots of sweet banana. Unbalanced.

OK, so this beer could be a breakfast beer. Definate banana aroma, smells like Banana Nut Crunch Cereal. Very strong banana flavor, almost artifical.

The aroma is right on the mark in my estimation it smells just like banana bread and the color is a nice clear yellowish orange. There is certainly a banana flavor to the beer however the bitterness of the hops makes it taste a little more like banana peel. An interesting concept but a little short of the mark, with a few changes to the recipe though they might have something here.

A: A nice deep golden yellow color with a head that starts out pretty large in my Granville Island Brewing mug before settling down nicely just over a finger in size. There is minimal lacing, and lots of bubbles rushing to the top. S: Not real strong. To be honest I was expecting a rush of banana from this one. There is mostly a subdued malty aroma with just a hint of banana. I was hoping for some spice as well. I know the banana bread the wife makes sure has a wonderful spicy aroma that seems to be married to the bananas. T: I actually like this one. Probably more than most other reviewers. It certainly has a taste of banana, but I wish it was a little more forward here. If they could have brought out the banana more and added some cinnamon and or nutmeg, It would have easily been a 4.5. They went a little over the top on the hops which in my opinion kind of competes with the wonderful banana taste that is trying to come thru. Nonetheless it’s a pretty good tasting beer. M: This one is a light bodied beer that is very carbonated.

Thanks to Leif for the 500ml bottle. Deep, dark amber body with just a tiny little head, but with firm lacing. Smell of sweet banana bread. More sweet, and late, banana in flavour – more or less like drinking banana split. Some malts to the aftertaste. Dry ending. Medium bodied. Way too sweet, a half-bottle was just enough (shared with Finn, Tromsø 01.12.2009).

Spew, hack, cough, puke. The only redeeming factor was it was pleasing to look at! Aroma was that of plastic like I have smelled in plastics factories. The taste was banana flavored astringency! There was also a sharp metallic aftertaste!