Bee Creek Brewery is a great example of the second renaissance of craft beer.
A family, the Forsters of downstate Brazil, with a history of home brewing opened a small six-barrel brewery in 2007 to make the beer family members enjoy.
It’s a great story and a story that is repeated across America. The explosion of beer lovers making beer is what sets this rapid craft beer growth apart from a similar boom/bust in the 1990s.
The Forsters choose to use local ingredients when possible, including the honey for their Hoosier Honey Wheat from a farm in Martinsville.
Hoosier Honey Wheat pours a cloudy gold with a frothy two-finger head with good head retention. Nice cathedral lacing forms as you drain the glass. A strong yeast bouquet with banana and clove is present with a fair amount of sweetness from the honey.
The weizen yeast that was used really dominated this brew, which is one of the reasons I don’t like some weizens, or German-style wheat beers, in general. The yeast flavor can overpower all of the other flavors in the beer and it becomes almost one-dimensional.
The flavors continue over from the aroma. The yeast has a strong flavor of clove and banana with backings of honey and wheat with a light citrus tinge to it hiding somewhere in the background. The beer finishes smooth and is a bit sneaky on the ABV. It’s much higher than expected for a wheat beer so having one or two can creep up on you.
Overall, this is pretty good beer if you enjoy the weizen style. Bee Creek is just getting into the area now and you may need to hunt a little for its beer, but it is worth it.
