Review: Nokomis Hoppy 6 Anniversary Wheat Ale


Merci FlatlandBEER for sending me this way back in the summer, I only finally got around to reviewing it now! Today's review is Nokomis Craft Ales' Hoppy 6 Anniversary Wheat Ale. When I first heard about Nokomis over six years ago, I felt like I was pretty educated on the Manitoba/Saskatchewan beer scene but really, I wasn't (and never will be at this point). I've sampled a few of their products, mostly thanks to FlatlandBEER and honestly, it's really good stuff, especially for an incredibly rural prairie brewery. 5% ABV

Appearance: Hazy wheat ale with a deep, heavy and cloudy golden-orange appearance to it. There's two fingers worth of snow white head on top that diminishes slowly, gradually but leaves behind close to no lacing on the glass. Reminiscent of many Belgian-style witbiers I've had over the past decade and half or so. 

Aroma: Hoppy Wheat Ale is exactly what this is. The first thing I get from this is a floral, bitter pine-forward beer with a lot of grain presence to it (good amount of fresh breadiness, notes of toasted barley), a hint of lemon, pineapple and grapefruit. Quite a sweet beer, so far. 

Taste: Very grain-forward ale with a good deal of toasted barley, a bit of wheat, and a hint of (healthier) breakfast cereal. There's a lot of tropical flavour in this beer, especially pineapple but also lemon, orange and grapefruit. Floral and bitter hop presence. A tad sugary and candy-like but can't really describe it. Tad heavy on the stomach but not overly exhausting like a stout, of course.

Overall Thoughts: Hoppy, citrusy, sweet and grainy. I expected it to be more of a Witbier but it reminds me of some of the Wheat Ales I used to buy in North Dakota a decade ago. Definitely a bit more bitter than most wheat beers I've had in recent memory... which is something I needed right now. Something I could drink in any season with no issue. 

No comments: