Beer of the Weekend #365: Halcyon Unfiltered Wheat
Meet Stanley, my cousin’s dog. I am dogsitting while my cousin and her husband are on their postponed honeymoon, so tonight’s BotW is on location at their place.
The original plan this weekend was to double-dip. I have neglected the Great Adjunct Adventure and nabbed a 12-pack of a classic, Midwestern lawnmower lager for the weekend; my plan to was to review it tomorrow night. However, I will apparently be camping. (My cousin will return tomorrow night so Stanley will be taken care of.) We will see what happens. Regardless, I will be reviewing this weekend’s base lager at some point.
ANYWAY. Wheat beer drinking season (summer) started this week so I thought I would kick it off with a brew that has caught my eye for a couple weeks: Halcyon Unfiltered Wheat, brewed by the Tallgrass Brewing Company of Manhattan, Kansas.
HUW represents the third Tallgrass beer I have tried, all recently. It is just coincidence, really. I will say, though, that their cans are appealing — despite the BPA.
Serving type: 12-ounce can. There is a cryptic batch code printed on the bottom but no discernable freshness date.
Appearance: Poured into a 330 ml weizen glass. The color is pale orange and has a lot of lemonade tones. It is hazy but not cloudy. Two fingers of thick, white head dissipated to leave a thick ring around the edge.
Smell: Up front, it is pretty hoppy for a wheat beer; there is a lot of grapefruit citrus on top of orange and lemon. Smells a little like cantaloupe, too. It is a nice surprise. However, there is a solid scent of wheat and pale malts.
Taste: It has a wheaty and full mouthfeel that offers orange, lemon, and grapefruit citrus. The cantaloupe from the smell is there, too. There is subtle spice, but the citrus provides a nice zest on top of a solid foundation of wheat.
Drinkability: It’s decent. It is probably what I would expect from a wheat beer from Kansas.
Fun facts about HUW:
-Style: BA classifies it as “American Pale Wheat Ale.”
-Price: $8.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 5 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: BA recommends Latin and German cuisine; earthy cheeses; salad; and poultry.
-IBU: 20.
-Informative nerdiness from the Tallgrass website:
We originally brewed Halcyon as our first summer seasonal, but since all the Halcyon fans (a.k.a: kiteheads) asked so nicely, we now brew this magical brew year around. Besides, who doesn't want a little taste of summer on a dark winter night?
We are proud of all our beers, but Halcyon is special. We are in “the wheat state” after all, so the pressure was on us to make a wheat beer, but we knew it had to be great. Halcyon Unfiltered Wheat is the result of that Midwestern angst, an all-American wheat with real Kansas-grown grain in the brew.
We start with raw Kansas white wheat in the mix to give it a nice edge, but what really makes it shine is the hops. We use “hop-bursting” late in the brewing process and this gives Halcyon its palate of tropical fruit flavors & aromas with a bright and refreshing taste like the best days of summer.
oh yea...Silver Medal in the wheat beer category at the US Beer Championships Woot! Woot!
-For whatever reason, HUW is the only Tallgrass beer sold in 12-ounce cans. Everything else is sold in 16-ounce cans.
-Speaking of wheat beer in cans, last Saturday I bought an eight-pack (eight-pack!) of Paulaner Hefeweizen at John’s. They were 330 ml cans, but they were still pretty tasty. Bottles are still better, but I apparently have a craving for BPA.
The Quiet Man’s grade: C+.
