Review - Abita Brewing Company's Purple Haze
"Abita Purple Haze is a crisp, American style wheat beer with fresh raspberries added during secondary fermentation. Subtle coloration, fruity aroma and tartly sweet taste." -- Abita Beer Company
Pours like pear juice with a hazy light yellow hue that billows up a one-finger fizzy white head with decent retention. Body remains slightly hazy and is very still. Head has completely dissipated and has left some thin strings of lacing behind. The nose is immediately perked up with a raspberry presence. The raspberries dominate the aroma, but does not fully overpower the light doughy malt presence. It smells as we expected it. Initial taste is loaded with tight carbonation that carries the light wheat bitterness and subtle raspberry tastes forward, and towards the finish the brew grows slightly more syrupy tasting while remaining light. Softly carbonated, the body has light to medium thickness. As a wheat beer, we expected it to be slightly thinner -- but welcomed the change. The palate was covered with an oily film, but left rather smooth over a long duration.
The raspberries are mostly detected in the aroma. It is light and very refreshing.
Reviewed on March 15th, 2009.
