Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The Bruery - Preservation Series: Shegöat







I usually try to not do two reviews of the same brewery in a row, but I picked this up from The Bruery the other day...








...so reviewing two beers from them in a row was pretty much going to be inevitable at some point. Luckily, The Bruery doesn't make a whole lot of bad beer, so tasting through all of these isn't going to suck. For one of the first ones I tasted, I went for a recent release, Shegöat, a weizenbock.

Weizenbock isn't a style I'm too familiar with, mainly because almost no one makes them. Schneider Aventinus is the most prominent example out there, but beyond that, I'm struggling to remember other weizenbocks I've tried. As a style, they're closest to Dunkelweizens (the sweeter and more tan brother of Hefeweizens), but the alcohol tends to be ratcheted up a few notches. Shegöat clocks in at a hearty 8.7%. Let's give this one a try.

Shegöat pours a deep brown (much darker than I was expecting) color with a thin, cream-colored head. The head stuck around nicely, leaving faint tracks of lace with each sip. The beer is sweet and malty on the nose, with banana, clove and dried persimmon coming to mind right away. Some spice cake and dark fruit notes are in there as well.

The taste opens sweet and malty, with some caramel, raisin bread, banana nut loaf and a good amount of brown sugar present. The finish is a touch spicy with a good amount of drawling malt sweetness and just a kiss of alcohol. The carbonation is on point, just enough to keep the sweetness of this beer from becoming cloying without detracting from the flavors in here too much. Weizenbocks haven't really been a style I've sought out much in the past, but if there are more like this one out there, that may be changing soon. Good stuff from The Bruery.

Final Grade: A-

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 127

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