Three Floyds Gumballhead Review

Name: Three Floyds Gumballhead
Style: American Pale Wheat Ale/Wheat Beer
ABV: 5.6%

Now for the last Three Floyds beer from my beer which I received a few weeks back. This time around, it's Gumballhead, the brewery's Wheat Ale. The beer's name comes from Gumballhead The Cat, which is an Underground comic series by Rob Syers and Skin Graft Records. It's hard to describe what EXACTLY Gumballhead is about but from I've read, it's about an anthropomorphic cigarette-smoking cat whose average day is like a cross between that of Frank Castle and Tyler Durden.

I've actually had this beer before at Jack's Tap while I was living in Chicago. At the time, I was really impressed with how good it tasted but I don't remember much else. The only other thing I remember about Gumballhead was that my co-worker at the time raved about how it was his favorite beer.

Gumballhead pours a very hazy yellow color with a decent amount of visible carbonation and the head is soapy white in appearance.

The nose starts out with some fairly strong citrus hops and an equally strong malted wheat profile. I'm also picking on some fairly strong grapefruit notes in here too as well as some lager yeasts which sit on the back end. Even though it's been a couple years since I've had this, I never noticed how similar it smelled to a Pale Lager.

The flavor is pretty citra hop forward at first but the malted wheat backbone gains some momentum here to the point where it slowly starts to overtake. There is also a minor but encompassing grassy and yeasty taste at work here too. The aftertaste is a bit on the dry side with a light but sweet tangerine flavor.

The body is moderately weighted that is light in terms of thickness. The carbonation is pretty moderate which gives it a nice crisp texture.

Gumballhead is held to high regards in the craft beer community for being an explementary example of the Wheat Beer style and having this beer only reinforces that belief. Everything from the robust hop profile and well-balanced maltiness makes this an absolute pleasure to drink and one of the best wheat beers out there right now. Even those who aren't huge fans of the Wheat beer style will no doubt find something to enjoy about with this beer.

Three Floyds Gumballhead - 9.25/10

Sam Adams White Christmas Review

Name: Sam Adams White Christmas
Style: Witbier
ABV: 5.8%

As many of you may be thinking in your heads, I am painfully aware that Christmas was over a month ago. Still, that does not necessarily mean that I am done with winter seasonals because there is still over a month left in winter (sadly.) How I long for a winter like the one we had in 2012 because we pretty much had no winter that year, and to me, those are the best kind of winters.

In any case, today I'm looking at a winter seasonal from Sam Adams called White Christmas, a Belgian White aka Witbier. I'd make a cheesy Bing Crosby reference here but I will refrain from doing so.

White Christmas pours a wet golden color with a some high carbonation. The head has a pretty appearance and no lacing to speak of.

The aroma starts off with a pleasent scent of orange peel, wheat and spices. Along with that are notes of cloves, cinnamon and malts.

Cinnamon and spices make up a good portion of the flavor. These are supported by some citrus hops, wheat and pale malts.

The palate is moderate in weight and some mild feeling carbonation is tacked on for good measure. This beer is pretty easy to drink.

I found this to be a pretty good Witbier and warms you up a little bit when drinking thanks to the cinnamon and spice flavors. I could see myself drinking this again next time the winter rolls around.

Sam Adams White Christmas - 8/10

Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Review

Name: Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale

Style: Wheat Beer

ABV: 4.2%

Goose Island Brewing loves to make it known that they are a Chicago-based brewery, despite contract brewing some of their highest selling beers out of state though they still continue to operate in Chicago and continue to make beers in their original location.

For those who are not familiar with Chicago, 312 is the area code which the city uses and is used by the majority of residents in Cook County. It's either that or 773, which is used primarily in the surrounding suburbs and/or counties.

While it bears the area code in which I once resided, it doesn't remind me of Chicago as much as Honker's Ale does. In any case, let's take a look.

It starts off with a hazy yellow color with a soapy head, with a high amount of carbonation and decent lacing along the sides of the glass.

The aroma has a strong cereal grain scent with wheat, pale malts, grassiness, slight floral hop notes and some mild skunkiness.

The taste is mostly cereal grains, pale malts, some slight wheat notes and mild earthiness. The hops present in the nose are nowhere to be seen here. Aftertaste is a mixture of grains and pale malt sweetness. Tastes more like an adjunct lager than a wheat beer, in my opinion.

Body feels a bit heavy with some rather strong carbonation. Doesn't feel all that good considering the flavor.

If you're looking for a good wheat, this one will disappoint you in almost every way because it tastes more like a Bud than a Wheat Beer.

Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat - 4/10

New Glarus Imperial Weizen Review

My apologies for the half empty beer stein, I realized I forgot the photo about halfway through the glass.

Name: New Glarus Thumbprint Imperial Weizen 
Style: Weizen Bock
ABV: 9.25%

A couple weeks ago, I made the trip across the bridge to Superior to get my New Glarus fix. While I was deciding what to get, I noticed a new addition to the Thumbprint Series lineup called Imperial Weizen so I decided to grab it my own. Plus I always enjoy wrapping the red-foil off the top of any Thumbprint Series beer, it's like opening a Christmas gift!

This is a Weizen Bock style beer, which simply means that it's a strong wheat beer beer but not quite like wheat-wine.This will also be my second Weizenbock from New Glarus, the first being Dancing Man Wheat (which I mistakenly referred to as a Hefeweizen in my review.

It pours a dark hazy golden color with a very high voluminous head, perhaps one of the highest I have ever seen which brings up a really good point: When you pour this, DO NOT POUR AGGRESSIVELY!!!! The first time I had this, I found out the hard way and had a foamy mess on my kitchen table. Be smart and slooooooooooooooooowly pour it in, you may have to stop a couple of times but it'll save you the hassle of cleaning.

In the nose, I'm getting some cloves, wheat, yeasts, spices, citrus hops, malts and bananas. It does have a similar smell to Dancing Man but with more spice and maltiness.

The flavor has some strong wheat and citra hop notes which are followed by cloves, pale malts and cinnamon. It's like Dancing Man but quite strong flavor at that and does come off as a little boozy.

The body is surprisingly light and the carbonation is pretty much not there but that allows you to savor the flavors that this beer has to offer.

The flavor is a little boozy but everything else works out remarkably well. It's got a good look, an even better smell, and an excellent flavor to boot despite the slight booziness. Those who are looking for a strong and flavorful beer will find something to love here as well as those who are looking for something a bit different.

New Glarus Thumbprint Imperial Weizen - 9/10

New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat Review

Name: New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat
Style: Hefeweizen
ABV: 7.2%

The hefeweizen-style beer was one of the first styles I tried out when I first got into craft beer. Since the beer which got me into the style, Summit Hefeweizen, has (sadly) been out of production for almost 2 years, I decided to opt for the next best "local" option: New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat, the brewery's very own Hefeweizen style ale with an ABV of 7.2%.

Back in 1995, while I was in my 2nd Grade class watching The Lion King and learning about Kenya, New Glarus Brewing released their first wheat beer. Then starting in 2007, they unleashed Dancing Man Wheat, which has been a staple of New Glarus' Summer Seasonals for the past few years.

Dancing Man pours a fairly hazy yellow with a fairly high amount of carbonation and a filmy head with bits of lacing along the sides of the glass.

The aroma starts out with strong wheat, banana and clove notes, with a pale malt backbone to round it out. The flavor is a bit sweeter with wheat, pale-pilsner malts, bubblegum, bananas and cloves. The body is fairly lightweight and some crisp, moderate carbonation.

Dancing Man reminded me alot of Summit Hefeweizen, which I still consider to be the best example of the hefeweizen style overall....that's a good thing! Now is it as good as Summit's? No, but it comes pretty damn close! The flavor is pretty robust, well balanced and not to mention tasty! Summer is about to enter the home stretch so pick this up while you still can!

New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat - 9/10

Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer Review

Onto the fifth beer in the Boulevard Brewing Sampler Pack, we have their Unfiltered Wheat Beer with an ABV of 4.4%. According to Boulevard, this is their most popular offering and the highest selling beer in the Midwest; Hmmm...........

To start off, it pours a very cloudy pale yellow color, so the term "Unfiltered" is very much warranted here. It pours a filmy looking head and the lack of lacing gives it a pretty clean finish.

The aroma is mainly pale malts, wheat, grassiness, and barley. It has a slight earthy-pils aroma about it, which is not to be unexpected. Flavor-wise you have your wheat, pale malts, yeasts and some mild hops; The aftertaste is a combination of wheat, pale malts and a slight grassy/earthy taste.

The body is fairly light and the carbonation falls just a couple spots below what some would call average. As such, it's pretty easy to drink and fits the flavor for the most part.

Wheat Beers in general have been always a polarizing style with me, they're either very good (Three Floyds Gumball Head, Lagunita's Little Sumpin' Sumpin') or taste like bile (Hoegaarden, Bell's Oarsman). This one falls in the middle: it's drinkable, tastes decent, and is somewhat of a sessionable beer. Are there better examples of this style out there on the market? Yes, but I can't really find any glaring problems with this beer aside from that it could've been more vibrant in terms of flavor.

Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer - 7/10