Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL
Purchased: 750ml bottle/1 Pint, 9.4oz (Batch #74) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013
Style/ABV: Berliner Weisse, 3.5%
Reported IBUs: ?
I've been pounding my liver pretty hard this past week or two, so nothing seems more appropriate than to cap the weekend off with a light, 3.5% Berliner Weissbier. About Pipeworks:
"Pipeworks Flower Child is the groovy, free-spirited sister to the previous generations of berliner beauties. Naked as the day she was born, this free loving girl is pure and unadultered. Take a taste and she'll drop a tantalizing tart acidity beside a refreshing wheat base. Simple yet so complex, this righteous girl promises a peak experience. Peace, love and Berliner Weisse. Can you dig it?"
This one pours a hazy/cloudy greenish-gold-straw color, that can only be compared to pond water or poorly filtered iced tea. The beer is equally as unfiltered as pond water, with chunks of sediment floating around. I fridged this horizontally like a boss. The beer kicked up a finger of sickly, fizzy, white head. The head has settled into a nice hazy funk. This has good carbonation, and there's some lacing. Everything about this beer is pretty much the same story in bright light, only more so.
The comedy with this beer is that it reminds me of Leinenkugels Summer Shandy, only with some more funk. I'm getting lemon, Lemonheads, lemon-aid, club soda, lactic funk, pleasant acidity, and some nice sour wheat/hay/barnyard. Really nice stuff on the nose here.
This is just a pleasure to drink, with nice sour wheat, lemon, and barnyard up front, followed by nice lactic acidity. You get some bread and biscuit on the back, with maybe a hint of dough or dairy. There's some mineral-esque flavors in here, but the big thing is the sour lemon, lemon-aid, and grass/hay/wheat up front, followed by lactic acid, bread, and a clean finish.
3.5% wwwwhhhuuuuuttttt. This is insanely flavorful and drinkable for such a low-ABV beer. This is highly carbonated, but the carbonation is thin and crisp. The beer is driven by nice sourness and acidity, and then rounds into a malty and dry finish. With a light mouthfeel, this goes down easy. And it should. Palate depth is great, and so is complexity. Up front: sour lemons, grass, barnyard; the middle blasts the lactic acid funk; the back rounds out with bread/biscuit, lingering sour mash, dry.
Rating: Divine Brew
I gotta go with a Strong Divine Brew on this. This is easily the best of the Pipeworks Berliner Weisse series, and this is a great beer. This beer would be right at home at a summer barbecue on a hot afternoon, or by the beach, or wherever really. This is super drinkable, super refreshing, and has huge and bold flavors for a 3.5% ABV beer. This beer is a testament to what you can do with a low-gravity beer. I would pair this beer with a fresh salad, a fruit salad, ceviche, fried calamari, pork, fish, lightly seasoned chicken, and anything you're cooking on your patio grill. Considering a bottle of this stuff is around 10 to 12 bucks...totally worth it.
Random Thought: Dear, "The Writers" of the Walking Dead, your Season 3 finale sucked and you should feel bad.
Reported IBUs: ?
I've been pounding my liver pretty hard this past week or two, so nothing seems more appropriate than to cap the weekend off with a light, 3.5% Berliner Weissbier. About Pipeworks:
Pipeworks has humble roots. The brewery was founded in Chicago in 2011 by Beejay Oslon and Gerrit Lewis. The duo were both homebrewers that met while while working at West Lakeview Liquors. In 2011, they began to raise money for their brewery using the online Internet site, Kickstarter. Olson and Lewis were both educated at De Struise Brewery in Oostvleteren, Belgium. With that knowledge, and the money from their kickstarter, Olson and Lewis created a unique brewery that is smaller in size, and intended to brew smaller batches of beer. The company's motto is "small batches, big beers." And indeed, since the brewery has been around, they've been releasing a lot of one-offs and small batch releases. At one point - and maybe still - the goal was the release a new beer every week. You can read more about the brewery at their website HERE.
"Pipeworks Flower Child is the groovy, free-spirited sister to the previous generations of berliner beauties. Naked as the day she was born, this free loving girl is pure and unadultered. Take a taste and she'll drop a tantalizing tart acidity beside a refreshing wheat base. Simple yet so complex, this righteous girl promises a peak experience. Peace, love and Berliner Weisse. Can you dig it?"
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| Pipeworks Flower Child |
The comedy with this beer is that it reminds me of Leinenkugels Summer Shandy, only with some more funk. I'm getting lemon, Lemonheads, lemon-aid, club soda, lactic funk, pleasant acidity, and some nice sour wheat/hay/barnyard. Really nice stuff on the nose here.
This is just a pleasure to drink, with nice sour wheat, lemon, and barnyard up front, followed by nice lactic acidity. You get some bread and biscuit on the back, with maybe a hint of dough or dairy. There's some mineral-esque flavors in here, but the big thing is the sour lemon, lemon-aid, and grass/hay/wheat up front, followed by lactic acid, bread, and a clean finish.
3.5% wwwwhhhuuuuuttttt. This is insanely flavorful and drinkable for such a low-ABV beer. This is highly carbonated, but the carbonation is thin and crisp. The beer is driven by nice sourness and acidity, and then rounds into a malty and dry finish. With a light mouthfeel, this goes down easy. And it should. Palate depth is great, and so is complexity. Up front: sour lemons, grass, barnyard; the middle blasts the lactic acid funk; the back rounds out with bread/biscuit, lingering sour mash, dry.
Rating: Divine Brew
I gotta go with a Strong Divine Brew on this. This is easily the best of the Pipeworks Berliner Weisse series, and this is a great beer. This beer would be right at home at a summer barbecue on a hot afternoon, or by the beach, or wherever really. This is super drinkable, super refreshing, and has huge and bold flavors for a 3.5% ABV beer. This beer is a testament to what you can do with a low-gravity beer. I would pair this beer with a fresh salad, a fruit salad, ceviche, fried calamari, pork, fish, lightly seasoned chicken, and anything you're cooking on your patio grill. Considering a bottle of this stuff is around 10 to 12 bucks...totally worth it.
Random Thought: Dear, "The Writers" of the Walking Dead, your Season 3 finale sucked and you should feel bad.
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