Bavarian Winterfest Wheat (Marks & Spencer)

Pours a lovely deep malty brown. Smells of burnt caramel, cloves and banana.

Delicious malty taste, like brown sugar with malty edges, quickly flooded by flavours of ripe banana, hints of vanilla and gentle spices, maybe nutmeg.

The finish is warming, sweet with a little bitterness. Brewed by Arcobrau for M&S, their brewing expertise for this style is clear.

8/10 A wonderful version of the standard wheat, warming, spicy, perfect for a bonfire.

Wheat (Meantime)

Wheat beers. Yes, I know. Different, unusual, eclectic.

I've never really been the greatest fan, yet it was the least I could do to give the Meantime product a go, that venerable brewing institution being a continually reliable supplier of all things good in the ale world.

It's in an elegant ammunition casing bottle, tapered and elongated like the best of Suffolk Cru cider. It seems dark on the shelf, yet emerges from the bottle a crisp golden murk, a wheaty emulsified bullion of a beer. It smells Belgian and it looks it. The head is fine and blanched, and persists like a benign algae, suggesting extra biological life beneath it's auburn opaque depths.

The taste is wheaty of course, and is etched with the typical clove character of an ale harvested from such fields. It's less intrusive than the assertive likes of Hoegaarden, maintaining a subtle, drinkable veneer of inviting taste.

The bottle mentions notes of banana (yes), cloves (yes again) and toffee (perhaps) within the mix. The yeast strain is "genuine Bavarian".

The ale sits at 5% ABV, and is a fine example of what a wheat beer should aspire to. Personally, I prefer barley in my mix so can only grade it on my palate. I find it pleasant yet not moreish, a sociable figgy sup of a beer beside which I'd struggle to plant a flag, yet many would.

6/10 - A Good Beer. I'd head for this if the host had a limited range, but that strong soil/banana mix is not something The Broadside will ever crave.

- The Broadside

New Belgium Beer Selection - USA

Picked up this New Belgium selection box at the local Mini Mart in Austin Texas, here's what i thought

Fat Tire - The lead brew, a lovely malty beer with limited sweetness and a gentle dose of hops to finish, quite a distinctive middle biscuit bite. 6/10

Mothership Wit - A delicious wheat beer, light zesty, gentle sweetness, spicy cardamon notes. 7/10

Skinny Dip - Their Spring seasonal, dry bitter maltiness initially, with a fresh lingering lime aftertaste. Similar to the Fat Tire but with the noticeable lime finish. 5/10

1554 - Brewed to an old Belgium recipe taken from records dating back this far. Bitter chocolate flavours with zero sweetness and a dry finish. Not one for me sadly. 1/10

The Mothership wins it, a great wheat beer.

Eichenblatt Bitte (Oakleaf)

A Bavarian smoked wheat beer, “Eichenblatt Bitte” translates as “Oakleaf Please”

Poured as per the bottle instructions to give a nice cloudy beer, the head is a brilliant white, and despite expectations it doesn’t smell strongly of smoke.

There is a lot of fizzy hidden within this which gives it a real crisp bite. At first it tastes like a normal wheat beer, a nice gentle refreshing citrus sweetness lingers in the mouth whilst the smokey flavours slowly build like a crescendo of flavour. The finish is dry and leaves a lingering almost tobacco smokiness, with hidden fruit notes within. Its well balanced, the smokiness is prominent but not overpowering.

4/10 An intriguing speciality beer, if your a fan of wheat beer or smokey flavours in your beer this could be something special.