Beertopia: Harpoon Brewery’s UFO Hefeweizen

This column reviews a beer based on aroma, appearance, taste and palate (mouthfeel). At the end of each review, we will score the beer based on a five-star system (one star meaning you will likely regret ever drinking such a horrible concoction, five stars meaning it’s your new favorite beer, and two, three, and four stars falling somewhere in between).

Harpoon Brewery’s UFO Hefeweizen

Harpoon Brewery is an American microbrewery located in Boston, Massachusetts. It’s best known for its Harpoon IPA, a beer I haven’t tried yet, but one that scores well on RateBeer. Perhaps less well known is Harpoon’s UFO (Un-Filtered Offering) series of beers, which includes a pale ale, Belgian white beer, and a raspberry hefeweizen.

This review, however, will focus on Harpoon’s UFO Hefeweizen. I drank this beer on draft at a local restaurant, which had a nice selection of microbrews. As a fan of wheat beers, I was interested in trying Harpoon’s version and seeing how they put their own spin on the style.

The UFO Hefeweizen didn’t have a particularly strong smell. There was a bit of wheat and yeast with some really faint citrus smells. It poured a light yellow-orange color and the slight, white head had already dissipated by the time it got to my table.

At the start, you taste the mild lemon and citrus flavor that you get from the nose and toward the end you taste the grainy wheat flavors. For the most part, though, the flavor profile is very light and mild, with not much going on there. The body is light, has a good carbonation, and a crisp mouthfeel.

Overall, this beer is simply alright. It probably falls more into the category of an American pale wheat ale, rather than a true German hefeweizen, but, of course, you’ll only care about this distinction if you’re a serious beer nerd. What you will care about, though, is that if you are looking for a flavorful summer beer there are better options than Harpoon’s UFO Hefeweizen.

Little Utopia Rating: Two and a half out of Five

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Charlie Crespo (@Little_Utopia) is the editor-in-chief of Little Utopia.