Beer of the Weekend #20: Pyramid Hefeweizen
A good friend of mine called tonight. When I answered the phone all I could hear was loud background music. He was at College Street Billards in Iowa City and the Hawkeye Marching Band was paying a visit, so he called to give me a “taste of home.”
We couldn’t really talk — a marching band in an enclosed space generates a ton of noise — so for six minutes I listened to the Iowa fight song and the mock rendition of Michigan’s “The Victors” (“Hail! to you motherfuckers. Hail! to you old cocksuckers. Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the school we like the least…”). He said the drum majors were dancing on the bar. Insane. It makes me homesick.
So, in the spirit of college football’s opening weekend I’ll start this tasting with the song that made my cell phone rattle from the volume inside College Street, which Hawk fans should hopefully be signing after the game tomorrow:
“In heaven there is no beer (no beer!),
that’s why we drink it here.
And when we’re gone from here,
all our friend will be drinking all the beer!”
Go Hawks!
The beer this weekend is Pyramid Hefeweizen brewed by Pyramid Breweries Incorporated of…Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Berkeley, California.
That’s right — there are three brewery locations printed on the carrying case; two on the bottle. I don’t know why, and I’m being too lazy to find out. Must be a corporate thang, which makes me want to beat myself up a little for supporting a microbrewery trying to be macro.
Guess what I did last week? I splurged at BevMo! and bought a genuine, half liter wheat beer glass. It only cost three dillies and features the Paulaner logo. It’s cool, but there’s a small logistics problem with filling it with hefeweizen. The .51L mark converts to 17.2 ounces, and there are only 12 ounces in most American beer bottles. Do I deal with it, or crack open a second bottle and fill it to the top? Decisions, decisions. As you can see I didn’t use the wheat beer glass for the first bottle, but I will for my second and third.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles.
Appearance: Deep, cloudy yellow, which is on it’s way to light orange. A thick, foamy head formed on the top before slowly dissipating.
Smell: Very subtle scents. Malts and a little hops. Cloves, too. No fruit.
Taste: The first taste was very disappointing, as were subsequent tips of my pint glass. The wheat malts are present and there are no hops on the back of the tongue. The cloves are there from the smell and I’m getting a hint of fruit, but I don’t know what it is.
Drinkability: As a hefe it’s very refreshing, but doesn’t deliver on taste. Yes, it’s drinkable, but if you want to exercise your taste buds I’d recommend something else.
Fun facts about Pyramid Hefeweizen:
-Serving temp.: 45-50°F.
-Alcohol content: 5.2 percent ABV
-From the Pyramid Breweries website, food pairings include fish, salad, poultry, and spicy foods.
-Pyramid Hefeweizen, introduced in 1984, was the first wheat beer brewed in the US since Prohibition.
-Curiosities about the carrying case: On the side Pyramid is labeled as “the standard by which all other wheat ales are measured,” and the front says, “American-Style Unfiltered Wheat Ale; Refreshingly Unfiltered.” Hmm. A little repetition and a little too optimistic.
The Quiet Man’s grade: C.
We couldn’t really talk — a marching band in an enclosed space generates a ton of noise — so for six minutes I listened to the Iowa fight song and the mock rendition of Michigan’s “The Victors” (“Hail! to you motherfuckers. Hail! to you old cocksuckers. Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the school we like the least…”). He said the drum majors were dancing on the bar. Insane. It makes me homesick.
So, in the spirit of college football’s opening weekend I’ll start this tasting with the song that made my cell phone rattle from the volume inside College Street, which Hawk fans should hopefully be signing after the game tomorrow:
“In heaven there is no beer (no beer!),
that’s why we drink it here.
And when we’re gone from here,
all our friend will be drinking all the beer!”
Go Hawks!
The beer this weekend is Pyramid Hefeweizen brewed by Pyramid Breweries Incorporated of…Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Berkeley, California.
That’s right — there are three brewery locations printed on the carrying case; two on the bottle. I don’t know why, and I’m being too lazy to find out. Must be a corporate thang, which makes me want to beat myself up a little for supporting a microbrewery trying to be macro.
Guess what I did last week? I splurged at BevMo! and bought a genuine, half liter wheat beer glass. It only cost three dillies and features the Paulaner logo. It’s cool, but there’s a small logistics problem with filling it with hefeweizen. The .51L mark converts to 17.2 ounces, and there are only 12 ounces in most American beer bottles. Do I deal with it, or crack open a second bottle and fill it to the top? Decisions, decisions. As you can see I didn’t use the wheat beer glass for the first bottle, but I will for my second and third.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles.
Appearance: Deep, cloudy yellow, which is on it’s way to light orange. A thick, foamy head formed on the top before slowly dissipating.
Smell: Very subtle scents. Malts and a little hops. Cloves, too. No fruit.
Taste: The first taste was very disappointing, as were subsequent tips of my pint glass. The wheat malts are present and there are no hops on the back of the tongue. The cloves are there from the smell and I’m getting a hint of fruit, but I don’t know what it is.
Drinkability: As a hefe it’s very refreshing, but doesn’t deliver on taste. Yes, it’s drinkable, but if you want to exercise your taste buds I’d recommend something else.
Fun facts about Pyramid Hefeweizen:
-Serving temp.: 45-50°F.
-Alcohol content: 5.2 percent ABV
-From the Pyramid Breweries website, food pairings include fish, salad, poultry, and spicy foods.
-Pyramid Hefeweizen, introduced in 1984, was the first wheat beer brewed in the US since Prohibition.
-Curiosities about the carrying case: On the side Pyramid is labeled as “the standard by which all other wheat ales are measured,” and the front says, “American-Style Unfiltered Wheat Ale; Refreshingly Unfiltered.” Hmm. A little repetition and a little too optimistic.
The Quiet Man’s grade: C.
Comments
Post a Comment