My first experience with Ramstein, a little craft-brewer here in Butler, New Jersey, was a stop in at the brewery during one of the “second Saturdays of the month” open brewery tours. It was literally two blocks from my house at the time of my visit. Now it’s two miles, but still close enough for me to make a second stop by, which I intend to do very soon. I think my good-food-and-beer cohort Cindy is up for a trip there. We’ll get back to you about that.

Ramstein Blonde Wheat has a distinct fruity nose, and I got a nice hint of apple there. Seriously. Paying special attention to this during my third and fourth sips I noticed how strong the apple characteristic was. I’d even venture to say that there is a honey sweetness mixed in there with that tart apple nose. Very pleasant to sniff!

I noticed a certain spiciness as well. Pours a pale golden color, but had a rather short-lived head. It fizzled pretty quick. Of course that does not spoil the rest of the experience!

This is a bottle conditioned German style wheat beer, not overly carbonated, with a unique quality. The mild carbonation is actually a pleasant quality in this beer, and likely varies somewhat from beer to beer, being that it is bottle conditioned. But I would venture to guess that this moderate carbonation is intentional in this case.

Sports a pleasant tartness, nice malty sweetness, and is very complex and refreshing. Very smooth finish, with a subtle, lingering aftertaste reminiscent of that one might get after taking a sip of a semi-sweet riesling.

I liked it.

Tags: brewery, butler, german style wheat beer, Jersey, New Jersey, nj, Ramstein Blonde Wheat, ramstein blonde wheat beer, ramstein brewery, wheat beer review

This entry was posted by Drew Vics on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Brew Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.