Leinenkugels Berry Weiss
13. Feb, 2010 
6 Comments
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Brew Review!
Today’s review is of a beer 99% of you are going to hate, not because you have had it and don’t like it but because you are unwilling to try a beer that is fruit based. But before I get all high and mighty on you about trying new beer let it be known that this one was a beer I was going to avoid too. And as you can see from the pic I drank this with lunch because I was certain I was going to need something to go with this beer, I didn’t trust it on it’s own.
About Leininkugel’s Berry Weiss
I am not sure how you would classify Berry Weiss, it isn’t seasonal, I don’t know if it is bottom or top fermented so I could tell you if it is a lager or an ale. So let’s call it fruit beer. Leini’s Berry Weiss is a “fruit beer” that was first created in 1996 and has been pretty popular ever since. It even snagged itself a gold metal in the category of fruit and vegetable beer at the Great American Beer Festival in 2004. Berry Weiss is brewed with blackberries, elderberries, and logan berries and contains 4.7% ABV.
My Review
The Packaging
Blah blah blah nice label strong brand blah blah. I am not going to write anything here unless I really like the label. Any objections?
The Pour
This beer is going to shock you on the pour. I mean you expect big fruit from something named Berry Weiss, but you don’t expect something that looks like a wine cooler. The light purple/pink color of the beer really made me step back and look at the bottle to make sure I grabbed the right one. After the pour was complete you will notice a nice head that also has a hint of pink in it. Berry Weiss left no lacing, but that is probably a good thing as nobody wants to drink a beer that looks like it has pink lace panties running down the side of it.
The Nose
Put your nose in a glass of Berry Weiss and you are immediately going to smell the fruit. To me in translated to a mix of cranberries and tropical fruit flavored Skittles. Disappointing at best because it lacks any beer qualities. You won’t find any hops, grains, malts, or alcohol on this nose.
The Palate
Surprisingly pleasant! I was expecting a sweetness similar to Blue Moon’s Honey Moon that I reviewed a few weeks back, but I was surprised to find that it wasn’t quite as thick which made this beer a whole lot more refreshing. So the pro of Berry Weiss is that the sweetness while present it isn’t overpowering or gross.
However; with that said Berry Weiss is more like Bartles and James than it is beer. I drank this down with a light lunch consisting of turkey on wheat, pretzel rods, and apple slices which paired magnificently and made it go down really easily. But it just isn’t beer, it couldn’t stand on it’s own and I don’t like the idea of mixing two beers together to get a drink worth drinking (a recommendation on the Leini’s website). If I am mixing stuff together it is going to be vodka (Absolut preferably) with lime juice.
The flavors in Berry Weiss that dominated my palate where kind of like a drink Ryan and I used to make when we use to bartend together. A strange concoction that included pineapple juice, cranberry juice, and orange juice. If you would take that mess and throw some blue or black berries in there you would probably have a pretty good copy of Berry Weiss, being that there was no alcohol that came through on my palate.
If you are hanging at the sandbar and the wife doesn’t want to bring the Franzia along I would pack some Berry Weiss for her to drink between volleyball sets. She would appreciate it, and you might find that if she has enough them she may more than just Lenie’s berries in her mouth. If you know what I mean *wink wink.
The Rating
2.5 out of 5 Beers
Related posts:
- George Killian’s Irish Red Review Hello everybody and welcome back to the Brew Review! In...
- Upland Brewery’s Winter Warmer Barley Wine Welcome back to the Brew review. Today edition leads us...
- Blue Moon’s Full Moon Hello everybody and welcome back to the Brew Review! If...
- Sam Adam’s Holiday Porter Hello Everbody and wecome back to the Brew Review! Today’s...
- Blue Moon Brewery’s Honey Moon This is a summer beer, and it is not summer...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Its a damn wine cooler. If you mix it with Honey Weiss it isn’t bad. But by itself I can’t drink it.
Yuk!!!!
Leininkugel missed the boat with this one. It is not their best. Oh by the way why the hell would you mix beers any way, that is just not right. I did that when I was 15 when I wanted to get drunk and did not know better.
I would agree with most of you here that this drink leans much more towards the wine cooler side rather than a beer. I do however like beers that have fruit in them because it gives a change of pace. I don’t ever want to be bored with the beer I drink. Fruit flavored beer are just like the seasonal beers in that they aren’t you favorite ones but you enjoy the change of flavor.
Don’t get me wrong I love beers that have the hint of flavor or fruit in them, but not to over power the whole beer.
My first review was me just remembering back at what I thought the beer tasted like. In order to give a much better descriptive response now I felt the need to drink this beer and then review it again.
Drinking out of my ‘manly’ mug this beer has made a mockery of it. It is WAY overpowered by the berry flavor. There is no subtle flavor, or a hint but rather that IS the flavor.