Beer of the Weekend #270: Inland Wheat
Ma and Pa Quiet Man are in Kansas City this weekend so I am holding down the fort while they are gone. I have my MacBook, my camera, and a sixer chillin’ in the fridge. Time to drink.
The beer this weekend is Island Wheat, brewed by the Capital Brewery of Middleton, Wisconsin. Or, according to Joe Hotek, “the Coralville of Madison.”
Here is the story behind my Capital Brewery pint glass. During the annual Great Tenant Turnover in late-July and early-August, my sister cleans apartments for one of IC’s property management monopolies. She finds all kinds of stuff, including completely furnished apartments with couches, TVs, and laptops, all abandoned by rich Chicagoland suburbanites. This year she found a bunch of logo pint glasses in an apartment and saved me two Capital Brewery glasses. I had never heard of Capital before, but gladly drank from the glass. Today on a visit to John’s I was pleasantly surprised to find an entire shelf dedicated to Capital (Mr. Hotek told me the shipment arrived yesterday), so I had to nab a sixer.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. No freshness date.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is cloudy lemonade with an orange tone. The head was absolutely pathetic, probably because I poured it too carefully. A finger of white foam dissipated quickly to leave a ring around the edge and a wispy lacing.
Smell: It does not exhibit the usual wheat qualities I want, but it has a very unique, industrial baked wheat bread smell to it — especially the kind sprinkled with flakes of whatever-that-stuff-is on the top for aesthetics. Lots o’ wheat. Other than there is a faint aroma of lemon and orange citrus in the background.
Taste: Mirrors the smell, but the citrus is much more prominent.
Drinkability: This is nothing to write home about. With so many real, Bavarian wheat beers available, I have no clue why I should even bother with the pale American versions. It is definitely drinkable, and true to style, but it lacks the flavor and aroma experience I want from wheat beer.
Fun facts about Island Wheat:
-Style: Capital calls it “an American Wheat Ale style brew,” while BA classifies it as American Pale Wheat Ale.
-Price: $7.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 4.2 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: BA recommends Latin and German cuisine, earthy cheeses (Camembert, Fontina), salad, and poultry.
-Island Wheat is named in honor of the wheat used to brew it, which is grown on Washington Island in Wisconsin’s Door County. According to the beer’s webpage, “Lake Michigan creates a maritime climate on the Island, giving the wheat crop very unique characteristics that carry through to the personality of the beer.”
-“America’s #1 Rated Brewery”? I don’t know about that, but I am not going to judge them by one beer. Though it has racked up awards from the Madison area, I cannot find a national award to verify the claim on the pint glass.
The Quiet Man’s grade: C+.
The beer this weekend is Island Wheat, brewed by the Capital Brewery of Middleton, Wisconsin. Or, according to Joe Hotek, “the Coralville of Madison.”
Here is the story behind my Capital Brewery pint glass. During the annual Great Tenant Turnover in late-July and early-August, my sister cleans apartments for one of IC’s property management monopolies. She finds all kinds of stuff, including completely furnished apartments with couches, TVs, and laptops, all abandoned by rich Chicagoland suburbanites. This year she found a bunch of logo pint glasses in an apartment and saved me two Capital Brewery glasses. I had never heard of Capital before, but gladly drank from the glass. Today on a visit to John’s I was pleasantly surprised to find an entire shelf dedicated to Capital (Mr. Hotek told me the shipment arrived yesterday), so I had to nab a sixer.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. No freshness date.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is cloudy lemonade with an orange tone. The head was absolutely pathetic, probably because I poured it too carefully. A finger of white foam dissipated quickly to leave a ring around the edge and a wispy lacing.
Smell: It does not exhibit the usual wheat qualities I want, but it has a very unique, industrial baked wheat bread smell to it — especially the kind sprinkled with flakes of whatever-that-stuff-is on the top for aesthetics. Lots o’ wheat. Other than there is a faint aroma of lemon and orange citrus in the background.
Taste: Mirrors the smell, but the citrus is much more prominent.
Drinkability: This is nothing to write home about. With so many real, Bavarian wheat beers available, I have no clue why I should even bother with the pale American versions. It is definitely drinkable, and true to style, but it lacks the flavor and aroma experience I want from wheat beer.
Fun facts about Island Wheat:
-Style: Capital calls it “an American Wheat Ale style brew,” while BA classifies it as American Pale Wheat Ale.
-Price: $7.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 4.2 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: BA recommends Latin and German cuisine, earthy cheeses (Camembert, Fontina), salad, and poultry.
-Island Wheat is named in honor of the wheat used to brew it, which is grown on Washington Island in Wisconsin’s Door County. According to the beer’s webpage, “Lake Michigan creates a maritime climate on the Island, giving the wheat crop very unique characteristics that carry through to the personality of the beer.”
-“America’s #1 Rated Brewery”? I don’t know about that, but I am not going to judge them by one beer. Though it has racked up awards from the Madison area, I cannot find a national award to verify the claim on the pint glass.
The Quiet Man’s grade: C+.
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