Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale
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(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Before it was poured into a tall wheat beer glass, my bottle of Goose Island 312 had quite an adventure.
If you hadn’t guessed, 312 is a Chicago area code. I used to live in the Chicago suburbs (the greater Chicago area is referred to as Chicagoland, which always reminded me of a theme park filled with corrupt elected officials), so I have made a few trips to the Goose Island brewery to enjoy its beer, root beer, and cream sodas. Now that I’m gone, I feel I didn’t visit the brewery often enough — as they say, you truly don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone!
A friend has been recommending that I try 312, but Goose Island beers aren’t widely available on the east coast. So while I was in Indiana a few days ago, I made a point to search out a 22 oz bottle of 312.
You can’t carry liquids aboard flights anymore so I had to check my bag ($15 checked bag fee!) and, of course, they lost my bag. I was convinced I would never see that bottle of 312 again. But yesterday, the prodigal carry-on returned. The Chicago beer I bought in Indianapolis had traveled to Detroit and Miami and finally Manchester, NH where it was driven to my house in Massachusetts. I may be drinking the most worldly and well-traveled bottle of 312 in the country. And it tastes pretty good, too!
312 poured pale and nearly colorless at first, so I gave the unfiltered wheat ale a bit of a swirl and hazy, gold beer began pouring out. My original pour was fresh from the fridge, so I wasn’t rewarded with much of a head and the initial aroma and taste both fell flat. The label recommends serving at 40 degrees, so I waited for it to warm up before drinking much more.
The beer grew into a lemony, wheaty aroma. There’s a light brush of spice to the nose, plus a fair amount of yeasty fruit. Taste is crisp, wheaty, and just barely bitter. Lemony, malty sweetness hits the tongue first, hugging the edges while yeasty, bready malt plays over the top of the tongue. The flavors are rounded out by papery hops that ease into a lightly bitter aftertaste. And I’m surprised — 312 has quite a full mouthfeel for a wheat beer.
The Goose Island website describes this beer as:
Densely populated with flavor, 312’s spicy aroma of Cascade hops is followed by a crispy, fruity ale flavor delivered in a smooth, creamy body. This gives 312 a balance of flavor and refreshment that never fills you up and won’t let you down.
The fruit, yeast, and hops weren’t very apparent directly from the refrigerator — it was like drinking another beer entirely.
So please, if you want to taste 312, let the beer warm up to 40 degrees before you drink it!
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3 Comments
May 4th, 2009 at 10:18 am
That is a heckuva adventure. Glad you like it. Had one yesterday.
August 16th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
where in Indianapolis were you able to purchase 312? The few places I’ve been look at me like I am crazy.
August 19th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Shawn, I found my bottle at a liquor store in Plainfield, IN. I drove past the airport looking for a place to fill up my rental with gas, and the first station I found was near a liquor store — so I went in and asked for a bottle. The 312 was hiding toward the back of cooler-shelf filled with 22 oz bottles. Pretty sure the store was just off I-70.