I picked up today's beer almost by accident. Well, the picking up part wasn't by accident. I just had no idea that it was from Half Pints, as the label is very unusual for them. It comes in Half Pints' standard (for their specialty brews) 650mL brown bottle. It has a black label which looks very cheap, so cheap that I almost didn't buy this beer. It has 11% alcohol/vol, and 75 IBUs. Yowza! It says it's a wheatwine, which I suppose is like a barleywine. Having had neither before in my life, I figure I'm in for a new experience. The label says it's made from a base of malted wheat, barley, and wildflower honey.
When opened, there was a strong hoppy aroma (not surprising, given the high IBU rating). It smelled a lot like their Little Scrapper IPA or Sweet Nikki Brown. I'm starting to think Half Pints only has one variety of hops available to them. It poured a foggy copper-brown colour. There was a small head that disappeared quickly. There were an average number of large bubbles. The strong hoppy aroma was still present after the pour.
The first sip was very different from anything I'd had before. I was expecting it to taste a lot like their Humulus Ludicrous, but was was radically different. The flavour came on very slowly, and had a very sweet aftertaste. The beer had a very soft feel in the mouth. It was a good thing the beer was as hoppy as it was, or the flavour would have been exceptionally cloying. The honey flavour was definitely present. There was absolutely no warmth from the alcohol. This beer was exceptional. I'm going to have to buy a few more bottles of this, even at $9 each!
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