Tofu and Fruity Pebbles

Last night, I decided to make a stir fry with tofu for dinner. I thought this would be the perfect companion to my first beer review. This review was chosen, by you guys. Thanks again for voting. The majority of voters chose Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat. Now, I know some of you may be wondering why I chose this beer to be voted on. I chose it, because it is a great introduction to craft beer. I don't consider Leinenkugel's a craft brewery, per se, but I do think that this beer is one of those you can give to a regular mass produced beer drinker and they can enjoy it.

Sunset Wheat is an American version of a Belgian Witbier. So, it is produced with wheat and has the typical Belgian style of having spices in it, such as coriander and orange. This beer is also one of Leinie's year round beers. I stored the beer in the fridge. The recommended serving temp is 40 degrees. Feel free to keep it in the fridge and enjoy cold. Upon pouring it I noticed two immediate things, 1) it produced a velvety head and 2) it was hazy. Both of these are very typical for a wheat beer, as discussed in the post "Where's The Wheat".





You can judge the haze of a beer, by putting a book behind it and see if you can read the letters through the beer. As you can see, this beer is very hazy and you can't even notice a book through the beer. This shows that the beer is not filtered.

It smells exactly like Fruity Pebbles, with a hint of coriander and orange. When drinking, the beer was light to medium bodied and had a very silky mouthfeel. It felt like a water downed milk shake in your mouth. The finish left some fruit, but the flavor was gone after finishing the drink.

It paired very nicely with tofu stir fry or anything that will be light, such as baked chicken. At 4.8% Alcohol By Volume (ABV) It is a definite "session beer", which means you can drink it all night and not feel too crummy in the morning. Light beers range between 3 - 6% ABV. The measurement to determine how bitter a beer is, is call IBU (International Bittering Units). The more IBU's the beer has, the more bitter it will be. Sunset Wheat has an IBU measurement of 13.5. Which is low, but typical for an American Witbier. It doesn't have a distinct bitter taste to it.



This beer is a wonderful introduction to the world of witbiers and I recommend when you go to the grocery store, to pick up a 6-pack.