I Like Hefeweizens and I Cannot Lie: Sandy Cheeks by Wisconsin Brewing Company

Recent plans for the Frau and I to meet a friend at the Olbrich Biergarten were quashed due to rain. While it was a bummer to have a chance to be social with someone we hadn't seen in quite a while denied us, I was happy to have Mother Nature water the new tree that the city planted in front of our house instead of me doing so. But in addition to missing out on seeing our friend and all the Gemütlichkeit that a trip to a biergarten entails, it was to be a tap takeover by Wisconsin Brewing Company which meant I also missed my chance to finally try Wisconsin Vacation, their pils.

Now that I look at their webpage, it's billed simply as a "lager". Well, crap. More specifically, "Lager.  Behold-a classic lager.  Refreshing, crisp and bursting with joy." How blatantly unhelpful. (Are there any ales that are given the minimalist moniker of simply "ale"? I look forward to the John Cage Brewing Company putting out empty beer bottles labeled only with "12oz".) Is this stuff Supper Club redux? My experience lately has been, if a beer is simply labeled "lager", then it's an American pilsner, i.e. – a crafty Miller/Bud/Coors simulacrum. Back in 2016 a WBC beer release calendar showed a Czech pilsner as a new year-round offering. This never happened, as far as I know. It seems that Wisconsin Vacation is the end result of that initial attempt to put another pale lager into the WBC line-up.

Well, to try and makeup for having missed WBC at Olbrich, I recently decided to give their Sandy Cheeks, a pineapple hefeweizen, another try. I had it on tap a couple of years ago and thought that it wasn't bad. Just a little too much pineapple for my taste ensured it would be a one pint only deal, though. But that was then and this is now. Perhaps the formula had been refined or The Great Curse of 2020 had slowed pineapple imports or made the fruit quite expensive leading to its more judicious use in Sandy Cheeks. I mean, hope springs eternal, right?

Pineapples are a common enough (and cheap enough) sight down at the supermarket these days that we forget that it (and many other fruits) were once rare and precious. Although native to South America, Columbus encountered them in the Caribbean in 1493 and they became an instant sensation when he brought the tasty, sweet, pinecone-looking fruit back to Spain. It wasn't long before every Tomas, Ricardo, and Haroldo with a greenhouse was trying to grow them. Expensive to ship from the New World to the Old, pineapples were once the province of the rich alone. In Europe, anyway.

They became a very coveted fruit perhaps by no one more than 19^th century essayist and poet Charles Lamb who wrote of them in an erotic way that puts that My Octopus Teacher guy to shame. Eating one, he wrote, was "a pleasure bordering on pain, from the fierceness and insanity of her flesh, like a lover’s kisses she biteth." I like pineapples and hefeweizens but, if there's any pain involved in drinking Sandy Cheeks, I am hoping it simply means I cut myself on the can.

If, like WBC, you're keen on adding fruit to your hefeweizen, you could do worse than pineapple. (Notice how the coolers at your liquor store aren't being overwhelmed with durian hefeweizens.) Like the hefeweizen, pineapples contain fruity esters and a phenol which adds a clove-like taste. The fruit also contains citric acid which is how she, er, it biteth you. So it's rather complementary to the bier.

It is my understanding that Sandy Cheeks was first offered a few years ago but was a draught-only brew until last year when it was canned for the first time. As I noted above, I had it on draft a couple years back and found it to be tasty. While the pineapple flavor was just a touch shy of cloying, it was still sweet enough to mask some, but not all, of the hefeweizen taste. I was happy to have a pint and then move on to something else. Is the 2021 version any different?

While it is surely the case that my photography is lacking, my picture still does a decent job of showing you what a pretty beer Sandy Cheeks is. It's a very hazy light yellow and I got a big, frothy, white head that was in no hurry to leave my mug. This is a very pretty beer – one that looks like summer in a glass.

It smelled almost exactly as I imagined it would. Brewmaster Kirby Nelson preaches balance in beers and the aromas are all in harmony here with a bit of wheat and a little of the pineapple here and your typical hefeweizen bubblegum and banana there.

Sandy Cheeks is a late spring/summer seasonal and it was brewed to spec. It has a medium-light body that was perfect for a recent balmy day. A medium dose of fizz fit well with all of the fruit, esters, and phenols. As with the aroma, pineapple, bubblegum, and banana were well-balanced with one another. I was quite pleased that the application of pineapple was done with a bit more care than in the past as there was no sweetness that even approached slightly excessive. A little wheat came through towards the end as did a velvety smoothness which was unexpected.

Some spicy hops and their attendant bitterness appeared on the finish as the fruity flavors lingered.

The moderation in the pineapple addition here paid off. There's nothing remotely cloying about Sandy Cheeks these days and more of the excellent hefeweizen reached my eager tongue. The flavors are all in their places living in harmony. I could definitely drink more than one of these.

Junk food pairing: With a Sandy Cheeks in one hand, you'll still be able to grab handfuls of hot and spicy pork rinds with the other.