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It was good that way too. In fact, my friend and I were so impressed with the hefeweizen that we went back for seconds before we left—and at a beer festival with hundreds of options, that’s saying something (it was the only beer we tasted twice). I can’t find my notes from this summer, but what I remember about the beer is how well-balanced it was. The coconut and curry flavors were strong but not overwhelming, the beer wasn’t overly sweet, and the heat was so subtle that it only began to kick in after three or four sips of beer. I made a mental note to keep an eye out for the beer’s release in Illinois.
There’s a lot going on with this beer: the creamy coconut and intense spices come through first, and initially mask the distinct hefeweizen flavor. It’s there, though: after several seconds I began to taste a little bit of fruitiness, followed by ripe banana, which together with the spices creates a banana-bread flavor on the finish. As before, it took a minute for the heat to build, but after a few sips I started to feel a prickly heat at the front of my mouth.
