Beer with a Babe, Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen with Amy

Last night while at Jupiters at the Crossing, I was invited over to drink a beer with Amy. Amy had just got off work and was having a beer. She (sadly) was drinking a bud light. When she finished that, she asked me what beer she should have. So, I asked her what beers she liked (bud light, blue moon) and then we settled on a Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen (the one with the blue label). It's a larger beer, so we split it.

I've had it before, on several occasions, but Amy hasn't, so she was a blank canvas for experiencing the beer.

Amy suffers from the same thing I used to, when I first started drinking beer other than BMC, and that's lack of a vocabulary to describe what she is experiencing while drinking beer. Most people (it seems) don't spend the time to really analyze their beer, so when they do, it's an unfamiliar experience. For me, it was frustrating at first to not be able to figure out what I was tasting/smelling/experiencing, but with time, it got to be easier. With additional drinking and study, you can figure out what things are present, what to look for, and how to describe them.

Amy described the beer as yellow, sort of a goldeny brown. The head tasted funny. The head also stuck around for a while, as we poured the beer on the first floor, then went down to the basement, where the picture was taken. There is still a present 1/4 inch of foam on the beer, and it was served in a cold glass.

She wasn't able to pick out much in the aroma, although she did notice a lot of sweetness. As for the mouthfeel, her word to describe it was "zingy". I took that to mean bubbly and effervescent, which she agreed with.

As she is a bud light drinker with the occasional foray into Blue Moon, a German style hefe (wheat) beer is not something she's used to. She described the taste, initially as "different". I'd assume that'd be different to her normal beers. If she went in expecting something like a Blue Moon, which is a Belgian Style wit (wheat/white) beer, she would be surprised. As the beer warmed up and she tried to dissect the flavors, she did notice a bit of banana; possibly after some prompting of flavors that can be found in German style hefe's. She was not able to draw out any clove flavors, but then, neither was I.

She said the beer "kinda tastes like Christmas". She also said, that at the right price, she'd drink it again. She stuck with the winter holiday analogy, and said "it tastes like santa came... in my mouth".

Later that evening, she was seen drinking a Woodchuck cider.

So, if you are out at Jupiters at the Crossing, and you are looking to have a beer, and you want to split one of the larger bottles with someone, look for Amy, I'm sure she might help you drink one.

(I had thought about doing a "Beer with a Babe" weekly/monthly post for a while. Where I sit down and have a beer with one of the girls who work at one of the establishments around town, and last night it sort of happened. If you want to have a beer with me, let me know.)