Flensburger Weizen - Citizen Beer

First off, Flensburger Brewery was founded by five citizens of Flensburg, Germany in 1888. Brewing beer for over one hundred and twenty years should say something good about a brewery. The brewery uses well water from the brewery property to produce this beer. The ABV for Flensburger Weizen is 5.10%. The color of this beer when poured is golden colored with a white head. It is also a bit hazy. The aroma is that of a sweet wheat beer. The mouthfeel is soft. When it comes to the flavor of this beer, it is a typical wheat beer flavor. It must be noted there is more of a malt flavor up front than most other wheat beers. The finish is slightly dry. I would say this is an average wheat beer in most regards. There does not seem to be a lot of depth to the flavor. It is not a bad beer, but not a great one either. Slightly below average would sum it up for flavor. If I could change anything about this beer, I would take out the dryness at the finish and take out some of the malt as well. Trying Flensburger Weizen out as a single is okay. Would I buy multiple bottles? Probably not. I grade this beer a C+.

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Baltika Wheat Ale - Beer From Behind the Iron Curtain

This is one of my first beers from Russia. I was surprised to find a wheat beer made in Russia, since Russia is known for their production of Vodka. As for the website promoting the brand,

(http://www.baltikabeer.com/) I'm not sure I get it. The website seems to be promoting a "look, we are on a cruise ship and now we found a tropical island in eastern Europe with young people having a great time" theme. The brewery website looks more like a software company website. It provides a little information about the beer itself (http://eng.baltika.ru/plant/).

Fast forward to the beer. The ABV for this beer is 5.00%. The aroma from Baltika Wheat Ale is very typical of a wheat beer. I have to give Baltika credit for the aroma. It is spot on. The color is a straw color that is hazy. So far so good. The head is nice and white. The mouthfeel is light, which is good and the carbonation is low. Now for the taste. The flavor is okay. It does taste like an average wheat beer. Again I have to give the brewery credit. What it lacks is a couple of things. The flavor is a bit bitter at first, then you taste the traditional wheat beer flavor, but it is a shallow wheat beer flavor. There is no depth to the flavor at all. The other problem is that there really isn't a finishing flavor. The taste seems to dissipate. When drinking this beer, the thing that really struck me was, "where is the flavor?". The flavor is there in a basic form, but doesn't go any further than that. This is not a bad beer. Nor is it a great beer. I give the brewery some credit for the aroma and color, now please work on the flavor. This beer is okay as a single beer, but I wouldn't buy several bottles. I grade this beer as a C+.

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Pyramid Audacious Apricot Ale - Sweet

Audacious Apricot Ale won a gold medal at GABF. Pyramids website (http://www.pyramidbrew.com/our-brews/audacious) goes on to give some ingredient information and what foods to pair with Apricot Ale. Strangely enough the bottle label doesn't seem the least bit interesting. But then again, you can't judge a beer by its bottle. The ABV for Audacious Apricot Ale is 5.10%. When the bottle is first opened, there is a HUGE apricot odor. The color of this beer is orange. The carbonation level is high. Yes, the apricot flavor is definitely very bold. My main strike against the apricot flavor though is "the artificial fruit sweetness" I am tasting. The consistency is not that of syrup, but I can just picture a bucket of artificial apricot sweetener being added to the boil. I would rather this beer have a fresh fruit taste, not an artificial taste. It would seem that Pyramid is trying to hard with this beer. If you are going to create an apricot bomb, do not go the artificial flavor route. Would I buy another one? Maybe on a rare occasion. It is not a bad beer, but not great either. I grade this beer a C+.

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Victory Prima Pils - Check out those hops!

Victory Brewing Company is a producer of quality beer. You want hops? With Victory Prima Pils you got it. Ingredient information about this beer is provided by the Victory website; http://www.victorybeer.com/prima_pils.aspx. The ABV for Prima Pils is 5.30%. When the website states "Heaps of hops" are used in this pilsner, they are not lying. For those of you that homebrew, this beer has an aroma of hops right when you add the hops to the boil. The very fresh hops aroma hits you in the face, in a good way. White is the color for the head of this beer and the carbonation is medium to high. There is a bold hop taste and it is a very fresh hop flavor. That is the German and Czech hops standing out. I can also detect a slight fruit flavor, maybe citrus? Prima Pils is somewhat bitter. When added all together, this beer comes together very well. I again have to stress the fresh, hop flavor. Victory really did a good job creating this beer. The hops and flavors mesh very nicely. Try one for yourself, and buy one for a friend. I grade this beer an A. Cheers!

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