Review: Shock Top Wheat IPA
Our mohawked friends at Shock Top are experimenting again with something new: A wheat beer made in an India Pale Ale style. Can that be done?
I won’t pretend to be the beer expert that our resident beer guy Greg Bruce is, but Shock Top’s Wheat IPA really is as curious as the company says it is. An unfiltered IPA brewed with wheat, citrus peel, and coriander, it’s got the best of both worlds. The cloudy amber brew needs no squeeze of orange or lemon on the glass, but the citrus peel character isn’t particularly overdone in the bottle. Like the coriander, it’s more of a hint and an essence that lingers in the finish than a heavy flavoring agent.
And then there’s the flipside of the brew, that bracing bitterness that’s part and parcel of the IPA experience. It works, surprisingly well, in the package. The wheat gives it a much bigger body than you often get with IPAs, and those citrus notes prove to offer a perfect counterbalance.
I’d drink this any time.
5.8% abv.
A- / $8 per six-pack / shocktopbeer.com
Shock Top Wheat IPA
$8
I am in search for the IBUs of this beer. I understand there is some cascade in there but where is the AAs at? This is the least bitter IPA I have ever had and think it is very far fetched to call it that. Where the alpha and beta acids at InBev?