Hello, friends, beer drinkers, and countrymen! Welcome to another Sunday beer session at The No Seatbelt Blog! For this entry on The Beer List, I’m reaching to my neighbor to the west, Pennsylvania’s proudly independent brewery Troegs, and their unfiltered wheat beer that goes by the name of Dream Weaver. I’ve had a few of their brews over the years, and I must say I was impressed by this one. For starters, wheat beers are almost always up my alley, and unfiltered is the way to go. In my not-so-humble opinion, if you want to remove character, taste, and decency from a beer, you filter it. If you can see right through your beer without much of a problem, you should be reaching for something better. Now, onto the good stuff…

As you can see in the picture, Dream Weaver was poured into my favorite glass (different beers should be poured into different types of glasses for optimal smell and taste, but I almost always end up using this one…I just like it), and appears a hazy golden color with no real transparency. I’ve just about mastered the slow and steady tilted pour to eliminate the head for the most part. I enjoy reading reviews on beer, and it seems that many reviewers go into great detail about the head, and the lacing left on the inside of the glass once the head dissipates.  I’ve never understood the fuss about this – I prefer there to be no head whatsoever so that my lips touch beer right away, without a thick layer of foam getting in the way. That aside, Dream Weaver is a great-tasting beer. There’s a wide palette of tastes going on here – you’ve got everything from banana, to lemon and orange (I always love the citrus factor), to wheat, and a big time kick from cloves. To me, the clove muscles its way into the driver’s seat in this beer, but I’m actually not upset about it. It’s prominent, but not too overwhelming. Because there’s so much else going on in the flavor spectrum, there are other things to focus on if that spicy kick is not your thing.

You can pick up the smell of banana, citrus fruits and clove, and they’re all identifiable in the drink as well. The drinkability is high here – nice variety of tastes, no considerable head, average carbonation level and a low 4.8% alcohol-by-volume. Despite being unfiltered, it’s not a heavy beer, and it lends itself to being your go-to if it’s on tap in your area or if you found a 6-pack to bring to a party.

This was my first time drinking Dream Weaver – it was courtesy of my brother, who has started a trend of beering me for Christmas. This well-rounded beer is definitely one that I would reach for again if I find it, and I may even seek it out. Very solid brew. Next week, a very special edition of The Beer List will be posted right her at The No Seatbelt Blog! Until then, drink up!