It has been a long time since we’ve had a Viven beer in the packs, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this beer when I first saw it was available, but it sounded interesting and just might be one of the most unique wheat beers you’ve had in a long time.
The most amazing fact about this beer is that it is a seasonal Christmas beer, offered as something a little different at the time we generally look forward to our heavy, dark, spiced Kerstbiers from Belgium.
Viven took a traditional German wheat beer base, and finished the fermentation with a specialty champagne yeast. And I thought it was really well done.
It has a pale golden straw-coloured body, with just a little cloudiness beneath a thick white foam that lasts quite a while after the pour. It has a reasonably sweet aroma, with notes of bready malt, some citrus and a little sugar.
The flavour is note as sweet as the nose suggests though there is an inviting early sweetness. Bready malt and banana are the first to present, quickly joined by some spicing with coriander and light citrus.
The finish is decidedly light, crisp and dry, with a lingering hop bite and spicy prickly that lasts.
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