Summer beers are usually oriented toward refreshment and more often than not, these products contain a percentage of wheat malt. One wheat- based brew made in the Lone Star State is Freestyle Wheat, a product from Austin’s Independence Brewery.
Beer Bio:
Style: American Wheat Ale
Calories: 144 per 12 oz. serving
Carbs: Unknown
Alcohol Content: 4.9% by volume
Freestyle Wheat Beer is yellowish/golden in color with a slight chill haze. The carbonation in this beer is active and it forms a white head of foam that is short lived and leaves little or no lacing. The nose on this beer is sweet and grainy, with hints of spice and apple/citrus in the background.
Moving to the taste, Freestyle Wheat Beer offers flavors of sweet grain up- front, with a small amount of clove and other light spice coming through in the finish. There is only a small amount of bitterness and it quickly makes way for a return to the flavor of sweet malt in the aftertaste. The beer is brewed using American two- row pale malt and white wheat. The finished ale has a bitterness rating of only 18 IBU.
Freestyle Wheat is one of several products from Independence Brewing and, like other malt beverages from Independence, it is very average in overall quality. It does offer some decent refreshment qualities but it reminds me of other Independence Brewing products for one simple fact: It is just not that impressive. It is certainly an acceptable beer that most anyone will find agreeable enough to drink, but those who crave a complex craft beer with personality will find it disappointing.
I’m not one to add fruit to my beer, but Freestyle Wheat Beer has a taste and character that almost seems to beg for an additive. There is a certain level of fruitiness to this beer and because it is so ordinary, it might actually be enhanced with a slice of lemon. This isn’t what most craft beer lovers want in a malt beverage- we usually want our beer to taste great all by itself- and it doesn’t say much for the underlying product.
So, in summary, Freestyle Wheat Beer is an average beer from a company with mostly average products. It fails to impress, but it also succeeds at quenching thirst and it is the type of summer brew that most anyone will find at least good enough to finish. It isn’t a bad wheat beer, but it leans toward the boring side and isn’t a brand I am likely to seek in the future.
Rating: 5 Cheers out of 10
Leave a Reply