Padre warned me about the banana on the nose but, I didn't believe it. He was right. The first thing that hits you after you pour a glass of Hot as Hell Hefeweizen from the
Little Red Chevette Brewing Company is the distinctive smell of bananas. Padre explained that no bananas were actually hurt in the production of this brew. The smell is entirely attributable to the yeast in action.
Before I get to the actual "un-capping," a bit about Padre, a long time friend and the brewmaster at LRCB. LRCB and Padre actually hail from part New Jersey that earned it the
Garden State title. Padre enjoys his days canoeing the picturesque, cool country Kittatinny Valley lakes in search of perfect fishing spots. He spends hours paddling the waters in an aquatic hunt for his finned prey. But, when he is not busy giving the fish population of northern NJ heck then he is busy in his shop brewing beer from the same local pure, deep glacial lake waters, testing his chemistry and fermentation. It's a bit of science and sorcery. If Santa Clause is
"Father Christmas" then Padre is
"Father Beer."
Padre takes his beer very seriously and gave me specific instructions on how to best enjoy his brew and what to look for. You get the sense right away that this is a heartfelt brew worthy of respect. I couldn't think of a more worthy subject for Bill's Triple-D review in breaking with the restaurant only review tradition.
Padre's inspiration for LRCB's Hotter Than Hell Hefeweizen was the pity he took on those of us in the southern states who suffered through one of the most brutally hot summers on record in 2011. The label on HTHH is a drawing of Texas being baked by flames in the background. Needless to say, Padre decision to send some of the goodness to me was
very welcome.
One of Padre's first instructions to me was to drink the beer from a clean glass. The breweries in Europe usually have their own glasses or steins that they suggest you drink their beer from. LRCB did not yet have glasses for HTHH, so I decided to use a hefewiezen glass from the Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu direct from Kinzigtal in Germany's Black Forrest.
The worst thing about HTHH is that the whole glass disappeared much too quickly. YUM! It was
that good. There is nothing about this beer that you "have to get used to." It just slides down as smooth as can be. There was a concert of tastes and yeasty smells that only could have come from high-quality ingredients, including great water. I can't really describe all of them. That might say more about me as a first-time beer reviewer than anything else. The beer was light in taste but, weighty in consistency.
I enjoyed a lot of really great beers when I lived in Germany. The Germans are not afraid of cloudy beer if it helps the taste. The mass produced hefeweizens in the US tend to be kind of tastless because they do filter out the sediment. Padre's HTHH reminded me a lot of the great German beers because it had the bold yeast smell and taste. The best German hefeweizens have that banana smell, too.
Padre doesn't publish the alcohol content of his brew. I'm no lightweight but, after just one I was feeling just fine with the world. I honestly don't know enough about beer chemistry to say whether the alcohol content adds or subtracts to the taste and enjoyment. Whatever it is, Padre got it right on the money.
There was one bit of advice that Padre gave me that I wasn't too sure about. He suggested leaving the last 1/4 inch of beer with the sediment on the bottom of the bottle. In Germany they will roll the bottle on the table in order to stir up all of the sediment into the beer. So, that was what I was used to. I went half way and first sampled the beer using Padre's recommendation then I poured the gunk in the bottom of the bottle into the glass and tried it. The sediment was actually pretty good.
I'm giving Padre's Hotter Than Hell Hefeweizen a 10 out of 10 on the Triple-D scale. If I find a better beer then I'll bust the 1 - 10 scale. But, I have a hard time imagining that right now.
Little Red Chevette Brewing
Andover, New Jersey
http://sites.google.com/site/littleredchevettebrew/home
.
I should add that it is not a dive in any way with the possible exception of being a little too family friendly. There were some kids being incredibly loud and unchecked when I was there. The atmosphere was otherwise very relaxed. The local cops ate here, too. So you know it is good.
I had the stuffed shrimp and lobster. One stuffed shrimp was meal in and of itself. It's not just the giant servings that were remarkable. The taste was really nice. I don't know what they did with the stuffed lobster but, I could not tear myself away from it. They served the meal with a side of pasta, as if you were not going to explode from all of the carbs already. It looked good but, I couldn't go near it. 
