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Out of the Bottle: Wheatwine

After a lot of waiting, my Wheatwine is ready to go. Let's see what happened.

The beer pours with a hazy mahogany hue and sports a dense cream cap that's slow to form. Head retention is OK, but not great. However, a nice smattering of lace is left in the beer's wake.

With 70 IBUs on hand, I was expecting a rather hop forward beer. That's not so much the case. Instead, there's a good sweet/bitter balance at work. Pine, citrus and candied fruits dominate the nose. There's also a healthy dose of fresh toasted bread. In the mouth, the grain flavors are dominated by toffee and sweetbread, while the bitterness carries in pine and citrus from the nose. Even with an ABV near 9.5%, the beer packs no alcohol heat. Letting the beer warm to cellar temp allows more of the woodsy and toffee flavors to come through. The beer finishes sweet, oddly enough. There's just enough residual bitterness to keep the sweetness under control. The beer's body is heavy, dense, sticky and did I mention heavy? My Wheatwine is definitely a beer you sip, rather than chug.

An evening snow is falling as I write this. My Wheatwine is the perfect accompaniment. I'm really glad I took a shot at brewing what seems to be a perfect sipping beer for a cold night.
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