Free time these last few weeks has been rare and I felt the need for a treat so I stopped over at The Beer Store one day while driving through Moon TWP and picked up what I thought would be a celebration of deliciousness. Let’s see how that turned out…

Weyerbacher 14
brewery: Weyerbacher- weyerbacher.com
style: Wheat Wine
abv: 11.8%
serving size: 12oz
glass used: snifter
price: $4.83

Overview
To honor 14 years of making craft beer we decided to brew a wheat wine. This unfiltered brew is made with over 50% wheat to give it a distinctly spicy character. Enjoy it now, or if you have the patience, give it some time in your cellar. When you are ready, expect to find notes of tart wheat and honey with crisp bitterness and carbonation. Recipe by Head Brewer Chris Wilson and Brewer Jeff Musselman.

What I think
Weyerbacher is a brewery I love and also insanely pissed off at the same time. They make some of my favorite beers (Merry Monks and Double Simcoe IPA) and yet have beers with so much potential that gets ruined in a grossly strong alcohol taste (Insanity and Blithering Idiot) that I run into a corner and cry. Fourteen falls into the second group.

Don’t tell me “that’s just the style and you dont appreciate it”. I’ve had wheatwines that have rocked. This one does not.

The appearance was promising. Head was solid for a minute and the body was a hazy shade of orange. Aroma leads me to believe it would be stong in wheat but the flavor turned into a mouthful of that banana flavored novacaine that the dentist would use when you were a kid becuase he thought fruit flavored drugs would make the pain more tollerable. Strong alcohol and spice with a splash of naners. Finish was rough and tasted like burning.

This is a sipper and after awhile your palate goes numb so you finish it because of the buzz potential.

Spoon’s rating: C-

I’ve decided that Wednesday will be my beer review day for 3 reasons:

1. It’s hump day
2. If you like it, you have plenty of time to stock up for the weekend
3. A lot of 6pk shops restock on Tuesday/Wednesday’s so if it’s in you’ll get first crack at it.

That said…  Most of my friends know that I absolutely hate Barleywine. You can almost say with a passion so you can see why even the bartender did a double take when I ordered this. Now to be fair this is a Wheatwine. Difference between the 2? Well a Wheatwine is similar to a Barleywine in kick but because of a larger amount of wheat malt it has a softer mouth when you taste it.

That’s what made the difference for me.  New Holland Pilgrim’s Dole is 10% ABV and  poured as a very dark red with a creamy head. This is on tap at Mad Mex so right off the bat I’m spoiled. I was getting a buttery aroma to it which really threw me off but the drinkability of it was a sipper. Keep in mind that it IS 10% so it will kick your ass if you don’t respect it. I haven’t seen this around the Pittsburgh area besides at Mad Mex so you may have to go there but don’t cheat yourself with a sample. Step up and enjoy the goodness.