Review - Harpoon Brewery's Crystal Wheat
"A crisp, refreshing wheat beer filtered for brilliant clarity. Brewed with a hint of lemon essence to balance the tart wheat malt." -- Harpoon Brewery
Pours a very pale straw color producing a small, white fizzy head over a fairly active body. Body clarity is brilliant. Color has darkened a bit as it settles to a more light golden color. The initial aroma consisted of light lemony citrus esters. The fruity esters were rather prefuemy with hints of roses. In addition to the lemon presence, a like doughy malt presence was detected. Initial taste is a bit sugary with some faint sweetness which carries through to the finish, with very little citrus to speak of considering the lemony aroma. With a light body and softly carbonated, the Crystal Wheat left a slightly oily slick on our palates. It was very smooth to drink and it left me feeling lightly acidilike I just had added a lime to my beer. Our mouths were left in a clean pleasant state.
A Krystalweizen isn't a commonly made beer, so it's a distinctive addition in the Harpoon Summer pack. Unfortunately, I think it it's going to appeal to the same people that Harpoon Summer does, so I'm not sure how this adds to the diversity of the variety pack. On its own, it's a drinkable wheat beer with some nice characteristics, but I'm not sure I'd reach for one of these in place of a summer ale.
Reviewed on August 20th, 2009.
