Cornstalker Dark Wheat - Thunderhead Brewing Company

    Cornstalker Dark Wheat has the honor of being the first Dark Wheat beer I have ever seen. This style is completely new to me, so I'm interested in seeing what it has to offer. Cornstalker is brewed by Thunderhead Brewing Company which is located in Kearney, Nebraska.

    The Dark Wheat pours a very dark brown, a color I'm much more familiar with in a Porter or Stout. Upon pouring, a two-finger, light brown head crowns the beer, though it doesn't stick around for long.

    Cornstalker's aroma is that of sweet chocolate malts with the tiniest bit of mildly roasted malt character as well.

    The Dark Wheat is light bodied with a light to medium level of carbonation. The overall mouthfeel of the beer is light and crisp. Cornstalker has an alcohol content of 5.2% ABV.

Freshly grown!

    Cornstalker has a much lighter flavor than one would expect after smelling the beer. Sweet cocoa malts are the beer's main flavor with a tiny bit of a corn flavor as an after taste. Unlike most beers which I have tried that use corn as a grain during brewing, I feel that Thunderhead actually wanted to use the corn flavor and balanced it with the other flavors in the beer. Instead of the usual, almost sour, corn flavor in some adjunt brews, Cornstalker presents the grain as a nicely toasted flavor, reminicent of Corn Nuts, or some other corn snack.

    To be completely honest, this beer's label almost scares me. I can't help but imagine being lost in a cornfield. If you've never been in a cornfield, trust me, it can be scary. You can be four rows of corn from the edge of the field and think you're lost in the middle, never to be found again. Before long, the man from the label shows up, seemingly out of nowhere, clutching a corncob-handled knife. Is he going to cut you an ear of delicious sweetcorn to enjoy together? Is he going to ask you nicely to leave his property? Is he going to slice open your stomach, tear our your bowels, and leave your innards in the field to fertilize his demon crop? Who knows!

    For being called a Dark Wheat beer, I really didn't taste any of the wheat flavors that I am familiar with. I assume that the wheat is roasted in order to make its character sweeter and "roastier". I'm somewhat dissapointed in the lighter-than-expected flavor offered by the beer. After the rich aromas presented upon pouring, the mild flavors were less than exciting. The beer's body also reminds me of drinking nearly-flat cola, so that's a minus as well. Overall though, I find my first Dark Wheat beer to be an interesting experience.

Amulets and Ale Rating: