A Star is Born

This evening we take a look at North Coast Brewing Company's Blue Star Wheat Beer and we are impressed. When poured into a pint glass from the 12 oz bottle it starts clear and finishes cloudy (think Allagash White) - probably our fault for not knowing this brew is not filtered. It's a bit startling to see the transformation but fortunately this was our second (or third) bottle for the evening so we were not deterred. Now, a sophisticate drinker would do homework first and find out that around mid-pour you should swirl the bottle and finish. We are not very sophisticated so it went from quite clear to London fog without warning.

The color is a pale, golden color - exactly what you would picture wheat to look like if it were made into a liquid. The head (that's what she said) is a familiar eggshell white and thins out in short order. You can certainly smell the wheat and a lemon or citrus as well. This is a good summer beer - crisp taste with a quick, dare we say refreshing, finish. A bit sweet and the wheat you smell follows into the flavor. The carbonation is probably just above what you would normally expect in a brew - if there's a fault, that would be it. Otherwise, we will keep this beer on the summer schedule (particularly in the humid, misery that is a Washington, DC summer).

The one major drawback of the beer is that the logo on the bottle looks strikingly similar to a this one:

Cheers!