The First Pour: O’Fallon Wheach

Cicero’s understands that when it come to beer, most people’s favorite is the latest and greatest new beer. Very few beer lovers drink the same beer over and over again. Sure, you might go back to an old standard, but you always try the latest beer first. For that reason, and others, Cicero’s changes their menu every week. When kegs kick, we change them up, unless we decide to keep it tapped for a while longer because it kicked so fast. With that in mind, we strive to keep you, our customers informed on our weekly changes. The “First Pour” series of blog posts will highlight and review the newest beers we have on draft for you. We have a really great enthusiastic beer drinker and Beer School graduate, Mike Vecchio, writing these posts for us. If you see him around, make sure and thank him for his hard work.

By Mike Vecchio

O’Fallon Wheach
Style: American Wheat/Fruit Beer
Alcohol: 5.1% ABV
Bitterness: 7 IBUs
Grain: Pilsner, White Wheat, Bonlander
Hops: Glacier

It used to be that the annual March release of O’Fallon Brewing Company’s (O’Fallon, Missouri) Wheach was the cue that spring was finally here after another long winter. Well spring has long since past, but good news thirsty readers! Not only does O’Fallon have kegs of Wheach flowing again, but they have decided that this year will be the pilot run of Wheach YEAR ROUND!! So if you don’t already foam at the mouth for this beer (like a co-worker of mine), then strap in for the King of all peach wheat beers (honored as the Riverfront Times ‘2007 Best Beer in St. Louis’).

Wheach pours out a hazy golden yellow with a fluffy white head perched on top. The aroma off this beer is as if you were to stick you head into a bushel barrel full of perfectly ripe peaches. You can almost feel the soft peach fuzz on the inside of you nose each time you take a sniff. The taste this beer is smooth, peachy, and lightly sweet. The beer is slightly dry on the swallow and it has a pop of peach tartness and bready wheat flavors that creep in at the end. The drink of this beer is refreshing and truly sessionable. I can think of nothing other to survive those St Louis days where the heat index goes well into the triple digits. Overall the nose of the beer is bold, but the drink of Wheach makes it an all-star beer to enjoy all throughout the year.

FYI – Wheach is now only available at Cicero’s in cans. They have a pretty good six pack price too!

About the Author – Mike moved to St Louis from Ohio in 2008 and got interested in craft beer thanks to local staples like Schlafly and O’Fallon. He credits Cicero’s Beer School for the evolution of his tastes from highly hopped IPAs to a range of stouts and traditional hefeweizens. When he’s not drinking a beer, Mike enjoys trying to teach his dog not to bark at everything that moves, reading about crime, and home brewing with his co-workers (whoops that involves drinking a beer).