San Diego Brewed is sponsored by Bottlecraft.
Bottlecraft is a retail shop and tasting room in Little Italy showcasing local, domestic and international craft beers. They offer hundreds of beers for your enjoyment in their onsite tasting room or to-go, as well as daily beer flights, events, glassware, merchandise, and gifts. Open Noon-10pm seven days a week. 2161 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101.
Mission Brewery’s Hefeweizen, one of the five year round beers, is an incredibly easy to drink, yet full flavored hefeweizen. I realize that could be ad copy from the label, I don’t intend it to be, but hear me out. Shortly after I drank this Mission Hefeweizen, I had another hefeweizen from an old German brewery, I won’t name it, but I’ll just say it’s considered one of the classics. I expected to be blown away with how much better the German classic was, but to my surprise I found it lacking, a bit boring and bland. That’s not to say the German hefeweizen, one of the pillar’s of the style for many years is a bad beer. It’s just that Mission Hefeweizen hit’s the sweet spot for this beer drinker raised on American craft beer.
Mission Hefeweizen has a sweet smell too it, reminding me of banana and bubblegum. There’s also some spice in there, but the sweetness dominates the aroma.
The taste is just the opposite, there’s a hint of banana but spices stand out more. Flavors of clove and maybe even something similar to black pepper mix well with the subtle sweetness. It’s well carbonated and has a good mouthfeel and isn’t too thin or watery.
Just to be clear the spices don’t dominate. You won’t mistake this for a Saison or a spiced beer, but they’re there.
I’m not saying it’s better than the classic German hefeweizen’s, but it might be better suited to the palate of someone used to American craft beer.
As you can see from the photo this 22oz bottle was $4.50 (at Bottlecraft). Photo by Chris Hammett