Mad Brewers Hoppy Hefe

The Hefeweizen can be a bland style of beer, often because the ingredients are for the most part the same, and the difference from one brew to the next can be subtle at best.   When it comes down to it, the Hefeweizen is the vanilla at the Gelati stand, the Corolla in the car yard, or the iPhone of beers... perhaps without the vicious lawsuits.   Once you peel away the packaging, and strip the marketing garb, the bare bones you are left with form essentially the same product as the last.   I do enjoy a good wheat beer when thoroughly parched on a hot summers day, but have yet to really embrace the genre, as there is never enough meat on the bones to justify the class as a versatile beer.   Enter Mad Brewers' Hoppy Hefe.  

A 7% Hefeweizen that comes only in a 640ml bottle, brewed by our own Malt Shovel (of James Squire fame).   The label firmly declares that 'sweet and spicy' German wheat beers could do with a lashing of hops, and be all the better for it.   I certainly can't argue with that.   I am at a point in my life where Maccas could just about put me in a diabetic clinic by releasing a McHop Burger.

The pour of the 'Hoppy Hefe' is visually striking.   The body is incredibly thick with colour.  Think shades of orange, amber, and burnt peach, all working in intertwining circular layers as if it were brewed by an intergalactic crop artist.   You can actually swirl the liquid around in your glass, and watch the different shades and pigments glide around.   Compared to your average beer, this belongs in the Louvre.   A thin fluffy head sits perfectly atop the body in a crowning fashion.   The nose is pleasant, and smells like a resinous pine tree that has been genetically modified to bear fruit.   Monsanto would be incredibly jealous.

The tone of the beer is as much a Hefe, as Chris Farley was an inspiration for anorexia.   The feel is weighted, and moderately heavy like a good American Pale Ale.   There is a mild oily slickness to it, but the delicacy is something that I have rarely encountered.   It's akin to being brutally socked in the jaw... by a feather bat.   Being swung by a fluffy cloud.   The addition of hops have wrought havoc upon the light carbonated sting that normally accompanies a wheat beer.   The flavours are complex, but balanced, with passion fruit and nectarine-like fruits vying for supremacy amongst sweetened wheat, and bitter hops.   Nothing is truly allowed to dominate, and where a dead heat might normally leave a crowd feeling numb and unfulfilled, this is full of life and breeds nothing but contentment.

This is one of the best Hefeweizens I've ever drunk.   The truth is though, had the word 'Hefe' not been printed on the label I likely would not have considered it to be so.   This is really an American Wheat Ale, for want of a more accurate term.   But lets not descend into genre arguments, for that is why God invented YouTube.


8.5/10