I’m wrapping up a holiday weekend in the usual way: mow the lawn, try to tidy the garden, call my parents who’ve gone to visit the resting place of their parents (both my grandfathers were in World War One, which dates me as well). While the sun is out, I can throw some strip steaks on the grill and open, as is tradition, (Disclaimer follows) a beer that’s been sent by the brewer for my comment.
I still have some backfill of heavier beers to go through, but a day like this calls for something summery. So from the sunshine and peach grove of Texas, I have Shiner Hill Country Peach Wheat.
Spoetzl Brewery describes this as the 11th in the “Brewer’s Pride” series, most of which have involved beers made with local produce. This is simply a beer with 2-Row and wheat malts, lightly filtered, with peaches from the nearby Texas Hill Country.
So, yes, there’s plenty of peach aroma just from popping the crown and pouring. The beer is a hazy wheat straw with just a tinge of orange, and a merely temporary head, usual for beer with an additive like fruit. There is a peach flavor from the first taste, and it is distinct enough to make me think of small, slightly tart peaches, from the beginning of the season. Now, the label is up front to say this is “Ale brewed with peaches and with natural flavor added,” but we beer fans would want more details. Was the peach juice in the wort after the pool? Was it fermented on peaches? This has a bit of yeast taste to it that suggests this might have sat on peaches at some point. I can say it does NOT taste like canned peaches in syrup, but like biting into a peach, It’s light enough, at 4.5% abs, to be had before or during a dinner from the outdoor grill.
