Hello all! I'm sorry to say that I think I have finally gotten bored with drinking wheat beers, but only for the moment. Maybe it's winter, maybe it's the repetition, but I just can't keep drinking one type of beer. I've got to expand! So, from here on out I'll be switching formats to one where I review all types of beers, or perhaps whee I review a style a month. So, I'm sorry to say it, but this will be the last wheat beer review for a bit. I've got too many delicious brews in my fridge that I've been sitting on because I'm bored with the style, and I'm not gonna take it any more! It's even made me take an obvious break from blogging. So, to summarize, I will still be drinking and reviewing wheat beers, but not exclusively. But anyway, this isn't what you came here for, so lets get back to drinking vicariously through me!

Today was mostly spent drinking and cooking awesome food. I've got some steaks cooked, some bread baked, some salad almost prepared, and I definitely have got some beer to drink. It's been too damn long since I've drank and really appreciated it. I thought that the stress of the semester would make me write a lot more, but so far it hasn't turned out that way. Plus, ive kinda been on a stout kick. It is winter, after all. I know that isn't a 'winter ale' but damnit, it seems like it should be. Sadly, I don't have high hopes for this beverage. It says “natural flavor added” on the bottle. If I wanted that shit, ii'd pour syrup in my natty light.

It's a very clear beer, obviously filtered. That's not a good thing. It has the exact same smell as the Abita Purple Haze, which no es bueno. There is not the slightest hint of hops. Mostly, it just smells of honey and berries. It tastes sweet, but not in a pleasant way. More like a “this beer has sat out too long” way. It's probably that awesome natural flavor. But despite the sweetness, there is no recognizable raspberry taste. It's alllllmost satisfying. The Abita had a little flavor of raspberry with no real sweetness, but this is just the opposite.

I'm not a fan of the Sea Dog Raspberry Wheat Ale. It is not very good at all, and does nothing to satiate my craving for raspberries. This is one pooch that needs to be put to sleep (OH SNAP!!!). 68/100.

It looks like I'm not the only one rooting for the Ravens in this weekend's playoff game. One of my personal favorite breweries, Flying Dog, has made a little wager against Iron City Brewery.

" The terms? The brewery whose home team goes flat on Sunday must toast the victors with their opponent's beer, while fully clad in their opponent’s gear."

I don't know about you, but i just don't think i could ever force myself to put on Steelers gear. I hate that team. Doesn't Ben Roethlisberger look like he just loves Nickelback?

I'd like to see a couple other breweries do something like this. And who knows, maybe if it goes into overtime, the CEO's could play beer pong to decide the victor.

Three day weekend, WOOHOO! The semester has officially started and I have, as of this moment, three of the five classes I need to keep me graduating on time and avoiding beginning my seventh year of school. I am not a doctor, so I do not intend to be in school that long. I've been sucking dick left and right all week trying to get into these classes, but budget cuts at UTK are making it hard to find sections that aren't full, since they don't have money to pay for more faculty. So yeah, its been a little stressful. I'm all about some alcohol tonight. I'm actually drinking one of those Leinenkugel Berry Weiss beers that are so sweet, because its the only beer I have laying around that I can drink without writing about. Well, that and the beers that i've got brewing.

One of them is a fruity tasting amber ale that was supposed to be a wheat beer (don't know how that happened), and the other is a milk stout. The amber is nothing to write home about, but the stout might be something special. I brewed a pot of coffee and put it in there before bottling to add a bit of flavor and caffeine. It also should wind up having about 7% alcohol, so the combination should get you nice and tipsy while being delicious. I intend to start writing about brewing at some point if it winds up that I have some sort of talent at it, but that remains to be seen. I'll post about it when the stout is ready.

I also have teamed up with the awesome food site FoodBuzz to generate some traffic, and hopefully some advertising revenue, so look for some pretty ads on the site soon. Well, as soon as I get the paperwork filed. This three day weekend should be good for my productivity. Maybe I can start writing about cooking with beer!

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. I may post a new review later tonight, so check in frequently. Or subscribe to my RSS feed :)

7.3% Alcohol by Volume
Color of Body #311700

The spring semester starts tomorrow, and I am actually pretty excited about it. I have a couple classes that should be pretty cool (one is on interactive broadband media!), but the real thrill begins on Thursday when I have to go beg to each individual instructor for them to let me into their class. You see, I just transferred into a new major and wasn't able to sign up for any classes until a few weeks ago, when they were all taken. But luckily, I'm classified as a senior and I need every single class to graduate on time, so they should work with me. Otherwise, I'll be taking a lot of sports classes :) Anyway, today's beer is a strong, dark wheat beer with a high alcohol percentage. I've not been a big fan of Bocks in the past, but we will see how this goes.

Wow, it pours a ridiculous head. Like, an entire glass worth and super persistent. Lots of lacing. In fact, if you tilt the glass the head doesn't even move. It just hangs there, like a college student without work... Both the beer and the head are very dark, thick, and creamy. The Pikantus actually looks like a porter, it's that dark. There are scents of both clove, nutmeg, and oddly, both vanilla and chocolate. There is also a smell of clean glass, but I think that is just the smell from the frost on my glass. Duh.

You can definitely taste the alcohol in this one. That said, it's surprisingly smooth, with a very nice chocolate note. There are surprisingly few fruity notes. Much less than I was expecting with this beer after tasting bocks like Shiner Bock, which has a very unique taste. The Erdinger Pikantus Weizen-Bock reminds me of a Trappist Trippel (Flying Dog makes a really good one in that style) more than the other Bocks that I have had. This is just overwhelmingly filled with chocolate and holiday spice notes, so much so that you really don't taste anything else.

This is one of the first wheat beers that I have had that is alright to drink in the winter. Plus, I'm working on a nice winter break ending buzz after my first beer, which is pretty cool. To me, it tastes nothing like a Bock, but it has a very good flavor and is more chocolaty than most stouts. And it has a great sweet spot with its body that makes it heavy enough to drink during the winter and light enough enjoy in July. Pick it up for sure. 85/100.

P.S. If you are in the Knoxville area, head to Litton's for one of the best burgers you will ever have. There isn't much of anything on tap, but it's all gonna be ok when that burgery awesomeness hits your tongue.

4.7% Alcohol by Volume
Color of Body #BB6223

There is something about winter break that just destroys my will to do anything productive. I hate it. I think it's because I'm get into a rhythm during the semester, and when I get out of it, I get out of it hard. Plus, the gym has been closed for the past two weeks so i've just been stewing in my room, playing Lego Star Wars and learning to brew. The lack of activity really gets to me, so I'm sorry about the odd spacing between updates. I'm sure I'll have a decent amount of stress coming up as the spring semester starts up, so beer will soon flowing like... beer from a bottle. Did I mention I have no creativity right now either? God, I hate winter. But at least there are a good amount of holidays to brighten my life. Speaking of, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope if you make any resolutions, you keep them. I'll remind you about them around April, so stick to them or prepare to feel shitty about yourself. Oh yeah, and shitty doesn't show up on spell check. Weird.

I happened upon this beer on my trip to Liquor Barn while I was visiting my brother in Lexington, which is pretty cool because I think it's a seasonal. Otherwise, I wouldn't get my hands on it until about May. I've been I big fan of Leinenkugel ever since I tried their stuff when I first started blogging, and I haven't been let down yet (by the way, it's not a wheat beer, but if you get the chance to try the Fireside Nut Brown, get it. It's fantastic.) I actually had a few of the beers while in Lexington, but I'm doing my best to push the memory out to get a less biased review.

This is such a girly beer. The head is actually a little pink. And the body has this crazy red hue that the hex number code up top doesn't fully show. It smells like some sort of carbonated fruit drink. But I guess it is, so that's ok... there are notes of raspberries, blackberries, strawberry jam (not just strawberries, mind you), and even a little bit of cherries and pineapple. Pretty much any sort of fruit that has a good amount of citric acid. Underneath all the fruit, there are light malt notes, but absolutely no hops. None. Just juicy juice and carbonation.

As for the taste, it's incredibly sweet and refreshing, almost like a Smirnoff or Mike's. You can taste a good bit of the yeast, which is the only thing that indicates that this is a beer at all. Or even that it has alcohol. If they could get rid of that taste, they could make a killing selling the Berry Weiss illegally to teenagers. They would absolutely devastate Bacardi. Seriously, it's that sweet and fruity (just like you! Burn!). They must add a ton of sugar when they bottle and pasteurize it. All the flavors from the initial smell are here in full, which is really pretty nice. I hate it when you get a fruit flavored beer that smells good but then the fruit is nowhere to be found when you drink it (like Abita Purple Haze). The Leinenkugel Berry Weiss takes it to an extreme, but isn't that what it was trying for? It would be a horrible beer if it had all those delicious scents up top and then tasted like a Bud.

You could really easily make some sort of desert with this brew. In fact, I might try something with it and post later... Anyway, getting a six pack of this was probably a mistake, but one or two aren't bad. It's a nice change of pace from all the hefeweizens I've been throwing back of late. I don't know about this beer in the winter (I don't like anything in the winter), but it would be a kick ass drink when it gets warmer out. Plus, nobody has to know you're a wuss for drinking it, because it kinda looks like a real beer. I mean, seriously, the Wiggles are more bitter than this. 79/100.