Try?
Re-buy?
As the weather finally starts to cool off a little here in Georgia (it's been ranging in the nineties almost every day for most of September), I find myself still stocked with a number of wheat beers in my DBR (Dedicated Beer Refrigerator). Wheat beers are amongst my favorite brews in the hot weather, and as I dig through them I find a last can of Butternuts Butternuts Heinnieweisse Weissebier.
You read right, a can. Butternuts Brewing company, located in an old dairy in upstate New York, eschews the nearly ubiquitous bottle craft beers are known for in favor of cans. This does tend to make their beers more portable, and to a degree protects them from light (but not heat) out in the cold cruel world.
Butternuts has the following to say about their Weissebier:
"Traditional Hefeweizen from Germany usually taste (sic) like cardboard because by the time you drink them, they're not fresh anymore. Chuck brews Heinnieweisse with Bavarian wheat and a 67% wheat grist approximately 5,000 miles closer to your mouth."
That's a pretty hefty claim, but can Chuck (Williamson, brewer and founder) back it up?
Butternuts Heinnieweisse Weissebier pours to a cloudy yellow color with a towering head formation of rocky foam. The nose is laced with a hint of tart wheat aroma and perhaps a bit of citrus. A hint of banana comes through in the palate, but only a hint. A few off-flavors come through in the palate as well.
I think this one needs a little more body, too, although it is well balanced in the finish with some wheat tartness and a hint of grassy hops. I'm not one to usually add lemon to my hefes, but in this case I did. With the lemon, it made a nice enough refresher on a very hot day.
Butternuts Heinnieweisse is OK, but it's pricey (around $9 a six-pack of cans here in Atlanta), and not really a beer I'd go out of my way for. I take issue with the aforementioned statement about German Hefeweizens. Being bottle conditioned, I usually find them in good condition as the yeast preserves them, assuming they weren't left sitting on a dock in 90 degree heat.
If you're going to take on the big boys, you need a beer that can go toe to toe with them, and to my taste buds Heinnieweisse lacks the flavor to do that, For the price, I'll stick to bottles and enjoy the real thing from Germany, instead.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
