This beer is bananas... and clove, and maybe slight citrus, as has been suggested, sure.
But I had issues with it, and this is my 3rd session with it, so this review is bananas too.
Sure, it begins with outrageous head out of the bottle (no, not I Dream of Jeannie, the other kind, so grow up), and a beautiful golden haze in the glass. And it's a big bold and unstoppable head that is revived with each pour right to the bottom of the bottle. The head was so remarkable, it made me think that I'd really like to see some of these American craft beers, such as Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre ought to do that for our entertainment dollar.
Yes, and next, the aroma is pure bananas; and we're talking aroma like windows down along Costa Rica's Caribbean coast line, south of Port Limon, where miles and miles and miles of banana plantations grow. And like the mosquitoes on Costa Rica's East coast, it took a little getting used to for me. By the third gulp, I'd say my journey on this new path to Mecca was well underway. I'm a fan, maybe not many of those reviewers here, but it grew on me, kind of like Brooklyn Dub music years ago, which was the craziest thing I ever heard, until I started buying CDs from DJs in basements on Ralph Avenue.
Change, it's the constant, oui, even if it's not de Fromboise.
So despite my reservations, I realized this beer is well more of an immovable object than I am an unstoppable force in matters of taste, despite my reservations were backed by the persistence of cider memories, recalling what happens to sick ciders, where low acid apples are used (eating apples verses fermentation apples, which were largely wiped out of many American orchards during prohibition) or no acid is added to prevent the transition from apples to banana flavors. The culprit there: acetaldehyde, which works on cider's tannins. The solution-- Champagne yeast to dry out all the sugars, or just make vinegar. And this beer, among other Hefe Weiss style beers, made me wonder if something similar isn't going on.
So I looked up the yeasts used to make Hefe Weiss on White Lab's website: Acetaldehyde, which indicates 11.9/ppm. Bingo, right? Wrongo, no! No, because there are dry ale yeast strains that deliver 36/ppm that don't deliver Josephine Baker's banana dance... (which would make a great commercial for this beer by the way, with a kind of Fahrvergnügen soundtrack, if they ever decide to go big, and do a super bowl campaign against big bland brother's horse show, right? Hey, it's an idea... maybe not a great idea, but clearly bananas make some monkeys go wild).
Moving on, the mouth feel is slightly creamy, yet thin bodied, like more of an egg cream than milk shake (or lard shakes in many of these fast food drive thrus), and without a lot of heat from the hooch, making it light and lovely like one of Hitchcock's leading ladies, you know, before he terrorizes them with birds, or insane inn keepers, or Soviet era spies... .
So basically, overall, like most reviewers here, I'd give this beer like 4 to 5 Eva Marie Saints. Would I order it again? Are you bananas: would you watch North by Northwest again, if only for the train scene?
Exactly.
(by they way, it was just $2 bananas at the Chicago Deli around the bend, making it a screaming, howling, yelping, poop throwing buy).
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