Beer Blogging - Trader Joe's Dunkelweizen
After that abortion of taste, I need something good, and I'm hoping this is it:
It's a new beer from Trader Joe's house brand, Josephsbrau: a Dunkelweisen, or amber unfiltered wheat beer. At least, I think it's new; yesterday was the first time I ever saw it in my local Trader Joe's so I picked up a 6-pack.
Poured into a hefeweizen glass, the beer develops a thick tan head that sticks around for quite a while. The color, as you would expect from the name, is a deep, cloudy amber. The aroma is intensely malty, with some floral hops underneath.
The taste is a lot like the smell, except that the malt is a little thinner than I expected and the floral hops are more present. The beginning of the beer has a light hop taste and a bit of bubblegum as well. The darker malts come in after that, before fading into a floral aftertaste. The biggest disappointment here is the mouthfeel: there's almost no carbonation there. Maybe that's only the case in light of the extremely carbonated beverage I tried before this one, but I don't think so. I think it's just not that carbonated after being poured into the glass.
The overall effect is pretty good though, and the aftertaste is a strong finish: there's the floral hops, and when those fade there's a very pleasant caramel malt. What holds the beer back, flavor-wise, is that thinness. It makes the beer almost watery, which is a big no-no in a wheat beer. It feels weird to call a beer with so many different flavors "watery", but that's the distinct impression I'm getting, possibly because of the very little carbonation. For that, I have to rate it a 6/10; it would be a seven or an eight if the flavors were a little stronger all around. Still, it's not a bad beer, and the light flavor makes it very drinkable. If you like malty beers but not strong, sugary flavors, you could do worse than to pick up a 6-pack.
It's a new beer from Trader Joe's house brand, Josephsbrau: a Dunkelweisen, or amber unfiltered wheat beer. At least, I think it's new; yesterday was the first time I ever saw it in my local Trader Joe's so I picked up a 6-pack.
Poured into a hefeweizen glass, the beer develops a thick tan head that sticks around for quite a while. The color, as you would expect from the name, is a deep, cloudy amber. The aroma is intensely malty, with some floral hops underneath.
The taste is a lot like the smell, except that the malt is a little thinner than I expected and the floral hops are more present. The beginning of the beer has a light hop taste and a bit of bubblegum as well. The darker malts come in after that, before fading into a floral aftertaste. The biggest disappointment here is the mouthfeel: there's almost no carbonation there. Maybe that's only the case in light of the extremely carbonated beverage I tried before this one, but I don't think so. I think it's just not that carbonated after being poured into the glass.
The overall effect is pretty good though, and the aftertaste is a strong finish: there's the floral hops, and when those fade there's a very pleasant caramel malt. What holds the beer back, flavor-wise, is that thinness. It makes the beer almost watery, which is a big no-no in a wheat beer. It feels weird to call a beer with so many different flavors "watery", but that's the distinct impression I'm getting, possibly because of the very little carbonation. For that, I have to rate it a 6/10; it would be a seven or an eight if the flavors were a little stronger all around. Still, it's not a bad beer, and the light flavor makes it very drinkable. If you like malty beers but not strong, sugary flavors, you could do worse than to pick up a 6-pack.
Labels: beer
posted by The Disgruntled Chemist at
7:50 PM
