Review - Two Brothers Brewing Company's Bare Tree Weiss Beer
"This unique Barley Wine Style beer is brewed iwth 57% wheat, 43% barley, and German hops. We boil the 25.2 Plato wort for three hours. Then we start the fermentation with our Hefe Weizen yeast and finish it with a Scottish Ale yeast. Bare Tree is then oak aged for over one year before its release. The resulting product is extremely complex with flavors of caramel, melon, apricot, vanilla, oak, black pepper, and subtle banana. The flavors come in large part from the raw ingredients and this will vary from year to year. Bare Tree is ready to drink now, but like wine, will age in the bottle for the next several years. So, whether you decide to enjoy a bottle now or wait many years, the Two Brothers family offer a toast: "With every bare tree lives the promise of a new life." CHEERS. The 2002 vintage was aged in whisky and wine barrels." -- Two Brothers
Note that this is a winter beer being reviewed in July. Pours a light copper color producing a full, off-white frothy head with great retention. Fairly sticky rings of lacing. Clarity is high with some small bubbles. Settled color is more of a moderate amber hue. Aroma is well balanced with some moderate maltiness with caramel notes, apricot/fruity esters, dominant alcohol presence, and some clovey yeast notes. Very inviting and warm to the nose. Initial taste is very fruity with some significant sweetness. Quickly, the alcohol appears with a warm burn which would be perfect on a cold winter evening. The taste rounds out with a somewhat more subtle sweetness that is still filled with alcohol, but very smooth. Medium bodied, there's a creamy texture with a sweet malty taste. It leaves an oily, slightly dry, film on the mouth. Warm alcohol mouth feel. Signficant carbonation feeling intially but it's actually quite soft. Quite enjoyable and very drinkable for a beer this high in alcohol. Aged very well. Would recommed purchasing and keeping for a bit.
Reviewed on July 20th, 2008.
