Name – Infinium
Country – United States
Type – Biere de Champagne

As you can tell by the title of this article this review is about Infinium.  And you probably know the story regarding this beer already but I will try to give some background on it anyway.

Infinium is the creation of a collaboration between Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) and the legendary German brewery Weihenstephan.  The beer is an attempt to push the boundaries of brewing while still only using the four key ingredients in beer making; water, malts, hops, yeast.  But for this particular beer the use of Champagne yeast is a big difference.

Apparently it took the two breweries many years of brainstorming to decide on the recipe for Infinium.  Will it pay off?  Will it break down walls?  I don’t know but I can at least attest to my opinion.

I found the cork on this bottle to be much more difficult than other corked beers and even most Champagnes I have had.  Once I finally was able to remove the cork I poured the beer into my pilsner glass as I don’t have any flutes.  It arrived in the glass a clear orangish color with a big bubbly white head.  I was surprised by how quickly the head subsided.

The nose was very fruity.  Banana is the overpowering scent I pick up but I can also get some hints of pear and passion fruit in there.  Other than the fruit I don’t really get anything else.

The banana is again very present in the taste.  Again a little bit of pear in there with some buttery notes.  I am also getting a fair amount of alcohol in the taste.

The body and mouth feel of the beer is not as bubbly as I would have thought with the Champagne yeast in use.  A matter of fact the mouth feel felt a bit flat despite the bubbly head when poured.

So is it changing brewing?  I’m still not sure.  It is definitely different from any other beer I have had but I can’t really say I like it.  I’m glad I got to try it but the banana taste is way too strong and the body and mouth feel just don’t seem right for what they seemed to be going for.

I had a sampling of DeuS last year and remember that being more like a Champagne than this particular beer.  It was bubbly all the way through.

Sorry Sam and Weihenstephan, this one just wasn’t up my alley.

Grade – D+