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We’re in St. Louis for several days for a long holiday weekend. We’ve taken the kids to Six Flags, the City Museum, and today to the Zoo. Tonight we’re out with friends Joe and Kimberly for dinner at Franco, a French restaurant in Soulard. Joe told me a little bit about 2nd Shift Brewing, a relatively new brewery in New Haven, MO, and a little bit about this beer since he has had it before. As he explained it, it’s an aggressively hopped wheat beer.
Location: On tap at Franco in St. Louis, MO.
Numbers: 5.4% ABV, ~ 167 Calories
Appearance & Aroma: It was pretty clear, especially for a wheat beer, and was golden in color with slight bit of a pale orange/light amber color. There was a very thin head at the top, which pretty much disappeared as I drank the beer. There was a bit of a bready malt aroma and a citrusy-piney hop aroma.
Taste & Feel: The body was light-medium and the mouthfeel was crisp. There was a slight bready-malty flavor before a decent sized piney-citrus hop flavor kicked in. The finish was slightly dry and the hop bitterness stuck around for just a little bit.
Food Pairing: This went tremendously well with the french onion soup I had at Franco. The bready malty flavor, followed by hop flavors matched the bready-onion flavors from the soup, while the hop flavor matched nicely with the gruyère cheese melted on top of the soup.
Overall Impression: At first, I was a bit surprised by the clarity of this wheat beer, as I’ve grown to expect craft wheat beers to be a bit cloudy. However, the subtle wheat beer flavors were there, as well as a wonderful hop flavor. The hop flavor was at just the right intensity – not over the top, but definitely balanced more in that direction, and balanced with a decent wheat-malt backbone. This is one I’d certainly order again on a hot night out with friends.
My Rating: 
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