Sherwood Forest

Things with disclaimers in the name usually aren't good; American Style cheese-food, Vegan jerky-style treat, Uncle Jeb's shrimp-esque product (now with less beaks!) for example. This is not always the case Morningstar farms used to make a burger-style cheese pocket that was awesome and truth be told I like American "cheese" for grilled cheese sandwiches. So it was with some trepidation that I tried one of my new beer of the month club beers, Sherwood Forest Belgian-style White. What does that mean exactly? It's Belgian-like that's what. That translates to we'll give it a try to emulate the style but we won't try very hard.

I love wheat beers. A lot of people don't. They either don't like the taste (fine), think they are "girl beers" (go die in a fire), or don't like how trendy they have become with even BMC dabbling in the style (don't be a baby). Label design on this one sucks (maybe I'll post a picture later) it's a half-hearted affair with a computer rendered friar Tuck I suppose we could call that foreshadowing. I cracked the friar open after a considerable amount of rolling on the floor, the beer not me, to suspend the large amount of sediment. Poured it into a tall glass, it was light yellow with little to no head. I drank it without a lemon not because I think the lemon is a moral failing like many beer snobs do, but because my wife was using our lemon for dinner and I didn't want to stand in the way of a very pregnant woman with a knife. Smelled like a good wheat beer, citrus, yeasty, little bit of spice. I was excited. Then I took a taste, and another and a third before I said "Where's the beef?" but you know with "flavor" substituted for "beef". The beer starts strong with all the tangy, citrusy flavors you expect from a wheat beer but then you swallow and it's done. The flavor is all up front and then dies. There is a lingering bitterness, almost like the pith of a citrus fruit after the swallow but it's not great and doesn't make up for what the beer lacks.

Overall it's not a bad beer it's just not great. I'll certainly finish the rest from this month's shipment with no problem I'll probably just never go out of my way to get more. I'd rather drink a franziskaner or a deathfish brewery wiess.

(PS Deathfish brewery is a local brewery I love)
((PPS by local I mean it's in my basement, but in all honesty my hefeweizen from last year was AMAZING))