Ayinger Urweisse

Yum Yum.
That's almost all you need to say about this comforting pillow head, yeasty and cereal malted aroma, smooth and gorgeous peach, banana and some subtle spices that swim through your mouth firmly cementing wheat beers as your favourite style of beer.
Just yum.

Co-operative Wheat Beer

I had cause to pop into a Co-operative store this afternoon, on my way to a short meeting in Cardiff, and I needed a couple of items for a Thai chicken noodle soup I was planning to make with the remains of the Sunday roast. However for a supermarket it was pretty poorly stocked, no fresh coriander, red chillies or lemon-grass, nor were they available in jar or tube form.
There also was nothing too interesting on the beer shelves, other than this Wheat beer, 500mls, 5% abv.

The only brewing information on the label is 'made in Germany'.
A cloudy yellow which produced a good frothy head easily, a little citrus aroma, some sweetness also.
Taste wise was light, easy enough to drink, but lacking those typical hefeweizen flavours, only the barest hints of any banana, not especially yeasty or giving any type of spices. Overall very disappointing.
What makes it even more annoying is that I drove past the Cardiff beer shop on the way home where I'm sure any of the wheat beers on sale would have kicked this beers arse all over town.

M&S beers and offers.

I've had cause to visit a M&S store a few times recently, whilst waiting for car repairs to be completed. The 2 branches local to me have usually a good range, and as Meer for Beer in her recent run of posts has noted they've also a few new additions to this range, selected and brewed by the countries better breweries.

Inspired by her reviews I first fancied the Sandringham Ale ,then the Greenwich Raspberry wheat beer.


My first purchase was however the Greenwich Red Ale, a wine bottle shape and 750mls, wire corked, and 4% abv beer brewed with crystal and caramel malts for its red colour, and uses 5 types of Yakima Valley hops.
I imagine a few of you are thinking 'hmm sounds like their Yakima Red, their 4% amber ale??' Certainly ratings on ratebeer would agree with that. I have never had it so forked out its £4.99 price tag.

This morning on a return visit I indeed did get the raspberry wheat beer, and noted they have dropped the abv to 4.9% and refreshed the label on the Cornish IPA, and there is a new Bath Ales produced Ginger Ale which I passed on this time.

I then noticed that they have reduced the price of two of the beers from last years lines, the Southwold Dark Ale by Adnams, a 7.2% barley wine that was £2.19, and the 4.7% Cheshire Brown Ale by the Robinsons brewery originally £1.99. Both of these are currently only 99p each, both good beers and therefore worth picking up a few bottles at this price in my opinion. This second photo of bottles cost a very reasonable £5.95 as you also get deal 'buy 6 for 5' offer!

Meantime seem to have a few of their bottles fon the shelves of M&S (and Sainsburys) currently, the two mentioned above, the London Porter, and now also a limited addition Barrel Aged Greenwich Hospital Porter. It comes in a cardboard tube, corked again, 750mls and 6%.
There is a picture here on ratebeer. It is priced at £9.99 which despite the recommendation from 'the guardian' tagged on the shelf, was too rich for my blood I decided. Unless someone has had it and can recommend it at that price I think I'll pass.

Thornbridge Versa

Wonderful beer, buy it and try it.
 I keep changing my mind on what might be my favourite beer style but it's beers like this one that keep me swinging back to wheat beers.

This German Hefeweizen styled beer from Thornbridge is 5% and 500mls of nectar. With its wonderful bubblegum aroma, with citrus and cloves I wish I'd had bought more than one bottle because I knew this would not last in the glass long at all.

And it didn't, the hazy orange liquor, with its banana's, apricot wheat breakfast cereal, and perfect carbonation, it all went down so well and far to quickly.


I kinda spoilt the overall effect with the wrong glass, my weizen one was broken a while back and I've yet to replace it.

Untapped Brewing Co. 'Crystal'

I previously reviewed the Untapped Brewing Co. beers here, here and here, and on the whole they are pretty good, certainly the darker the better with these guys I thought.
They are based in Cardiff, but brew in Gloucestershire, I met them once as they do the rounds of farmers markets here in South Wales and they were very nice chaps. I actually picked this beer up at the Cardiff Discount Supermarket where they had their full range.

This is the most recent beer in their line, Crystal, a wheat beer which is 6.0% abv, I paid £2.45 for it, and it was bottle conditioned.

Great carbonation, 95% of the yeast firmly on the bottom of the bottle. Colour was a golden yellow, nice bubbly off white head.

It was light on the aroma, certainly some sweets, possibly bubble gum, apple and sweet but light tropical fruit.
Taste - a medium body, there is a moderate alcohol presence, very slight citrus but thats beaten back by sweet grain flavours, malts and wheat. Faintly fruity, but minimally so, not much spice or the characteristics i have experienced with other wheat beers. Overall the taste was a bit lacking, not bad just limited.

I think my initial opinion still holds, their darker beers 'Triple S' 'Eclipse' and 'Ember' for me are their best beers and well worth checking out.

Tesco Finest Belgian Wheat Beer

Following a timely and informative post from the Pub Curmudgeon i found a reason to pop down to my local Tesco's. At 4 for a £5 I picked up a few of the Morland Crafty Old Hen, Fuller's Bengal Lancer and ESB, and Adnams Broadside.  I've not tried the Crafty Old Hen before mostly due to its usual price of £2.79, and because its a Greene King bottle, i seemed to have an aversion to paying that price for a bottle of theirs, i tend to find their bottled beers tasting very similar to each other.
Anyway as i clunked my way down the isle with my basket, in the 'world beer' section they also had reduced several bottles, one of them being their Finest range Belgian Wheat beer.

Recently i've been buying quite a few wheat and abbey beers, they've been my 'go to' beers, i have a Tesco express around the corner as well the main store (it is Tesco after all) and having cold Hoegarden or Leffe has become a frequent thirst quencher. Seeing as the weather was so bloody nice today i thought ahead and pictured myself, kids in bed,  enjoying a large cold wheat beer. The Finest Wheat beer is normally about £3.30 but now in promotion it was about the £2.20 mark for a 750ml 4.9% abv bottle which seemed good value, and worth trying.

Brewed by the Huyghe family in Belguim its a lemon yellow slightly cloudy beer, with hints of sherbert, lemon and coriander. Very crisp, quite dry and short in the mouth it had a reasonable amount of lemon and orange pithy dryness, vanilla, quite floral, banana. Its was okay, nothing outstanding, reasonable for the price i suppose.
Would i but it again? Well if it was still at that price maybe, in the Express store but they dont sell it there, in a main store there is a better (!) selection so i would doubt it.

Terrible label also, bad font, bad graphics, looks like some GCSE kids knocked it up for a project.

Erdinger Weissbier & Grolsch Weizen

Your author was an idiot tonight, going in for a night shift when i was not supposed to be working. Doh!
So on my return i opened a Brains Black and wrote up my notes on two wheat beers that soothed me the other night.
There is something comforting about wheat beers i find, soothing, comforting, they make you sink into the furniture, but the lightness and spices keep you floating just enough with their freshness
The first was one i think i have had before but never wrote up or photographed. Erdinger Weissbier, lovely hazy golden in colour, a thick creamy and foamy head. The body holds so well in the mouth, smooth, good carbonation, banana, vanilla, yeasty and crisp. Solid.
The second i have not seen before, in fact i cannot remember when i last had a Grolsch pilsner full stop, it must be 15 years at least. I will rectify that soon, although i do not recall seeing it in any shops recently.
Grolsch (premium) Weizen, a similar golden colour, another frothy white head, perhaps not as creamy as the Erdinger. The Grolsch has slightly more pronounced clove and banana aroma, but is that because i tasted it second and it was thus fresher in my memory?. Slightly sweeter, banana and clove again, fruitier and wheaty.

Two lovely beers, and i could have had 2-3 more of either of them, although if i have to say then the Erdinger was preferred.

St. Austell Clouded Yellow

St. Austell Clouded Yellow

Again, when in Cornwall earlier this year, this was the one beer i was really hopeful to find. And on the last day i found one, then dropped it in my car boot but luckily not breaking it. Obviously i explained to my friends that now the sediment was disturbed i would have to drink it another day thus depriving them of trying it. Shame.

Not quite sure why i have waited until now to drink but it was well worth the wait. Gorgeous flavours, so well balanced, vanilla and banana, smooth as anything, excellent excellent beer.