Sex, Hot Peppers, and Mother's Milk
Written: Sep 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Delicious, sublime, assertive, challenging
Cons: Seasonal, not for everyone at all
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| beerfly's Full Review: Victory Moonglow Weizenbock 2404b |
How can a beer be so many things, and make them all work?
Victory's Moonglow Weizenbock is a cloudy ("eeeew! Yuk!"), pungent, powerful, soothing glassful of amazing beer. It makes me shudder, it makes me smile, and makes me swoon... eventually. It is not a beer for everyone, hell, it's not even a beer for a large minority. This is beer for those of us who have been through grade school beers, graduated from beer high school. This is challenging stuff.
WAIT! What is it?
Look, I just told you, it's--
Slow down and give us a chance at this nectar. Use English. What is it?
If you look at the label, it's a weizenbock. That's a German type of beer, from Bavaria, the southern part of the country where they make wheat beers, with this weird yeast, that have become wildly popular in Germany over the past ten years. The yeast gives these beers flavors and aromas like clove, banana, vanilla, bubble gum, smoke, red plum... and none of those things are actually added, it's all coming from the yeast action. The beers are made from at least 50% wheat, which (because of an acidification of the mash the grain causes) gives these beers a somewhat citric tang sometimes. Very refreshing, and a beer the Germans drink in the morning. The boys at Victory got me broken into that habit: a little weissbier and pretzels at 9:00 never hurt anyone.
But we thought bocks were just big lagers.
Oh, right. This is a weizenbock, which is a kind of cute (for Germans) construction of "weizen" (German for wheat) and "bock" (German for... let's just simplify and say German for "big beer"). See, it's a big wheat beer, and quite different from the regular hefeweizens--
What's a hefeweizen?
Okay, a hefeweizen--
Because before you said weizen. Just look up there, you'll see.
Yes. Thank you. A hefeweizen is just an unfiltered weizen beer, "hefe" meaning yeast. A filtered weizen beer is called a kristallweizen, implying that the beer is "crystal clear." Moonglow is unfiltered--
So is it a hefeweizenbock?
No, all weizenbocks are unfiltered, so we just call them weizenbocks.
All of them?
Every one.
Fancy that.
Yes. As I was saying, it's a big wheat beer, and quite different from the regular hefeweizens because of that. They are quite light and quenching, crisp but with a soft edge. A weizenbock really gives the wheat and that odd yeast lots to play with, all those sugars, and it comes out with not only more of what a weizenbier has, but some new things.
Like what, for instance?
Like, for instance, that incredible shuddering slam at the back of your mouth every time you take a big slug of one. Moonglow is 8.7% alcohol by volume, almost twice the strength of MGD, and you know it. There are also chocolatey notes, and a much more pronounced citric character that verges over onto the heavier citrus, like temple oranges.
The beer is quite cloudy and brown in color, much like a late-season pressing of cider. It's not particularly heavy, so it's a good thing the alcohol is right up front, or you'd never know what you're getting into. It's sensual, luxurious, and rather warming, almost sexual in its entrancing effects.
Did you say sexual?
Yes, I'm afraid I got carried away.
Sexual? Really... How much is it?
Check below, I can't remember. But it's also exciting and challenging, with its freight of cloves and high octane power, a slap in the mouth that you'll learn to like, much like spicy food that delivers waves of flavor.
Spicy food, sexual, you're tying in the review title, aren't you!
Very clever, yes, and watch this: But curling up in a big chair with a big weizen glass of Moonglow is most of all comforting, a haven you can hide away in. Feel the warmth, feel the heat, feel the flavor, and remember that this pleasant sensation is yours every time you open a bottle. Warm, relaxed, and natural, like mother's milk.
Not bad! A little forced, but that curling up in the chair thing helps.
Yes, thanks, now shut up and let me finish.
Moonglow changes from year to year as the yeast performs differently, and as Ron Barchet can't stop himself from tweaking it. This is a good year. Last year was too citric for my tastes, this one is big and pillowy, yet still intense. Don't figure on having too many, because it's a head-knocker. It really gets the motor running.
Wonder if my wife likes it...
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
beerfly
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Member: Lew Bryson
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 82 members
About Me:
One bourbon, one Scotch, one beer, eh? I'll take Kentucky Spirit, Scapa, and HopDevil.
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