Ceria Grainwave

Ceria Brewing Company are a brewer based in Arvada, Colorado in the United States, and was the brainwave of couple Keith and Jodi Villa. Keith has a PhD in the field of brewing from the University of Brussels in Belgium from the late 1980s, and spent 23 years at MillerCoors brewing, helping to set up their famous Blue Moon Belgian White brand in 1995. After leaving the company, Ceria was set up by Keith and his wife in 2018, with initial beers riding the crest of the newly-legalised cannabis craze, with THC-infused brews being their first releases. However, such drug-laced offerings are only legal in a few states in the US, so to really offer drinkers a new choice they also released their own 0.0% ABV brews a year later, with a choice of 2 available – Indiewave, a hoppy IPA, and the subject of this review, Grainwave, a Belgian-style wheat ale.

Ceria’s beers are brewed to full strength, and are then stripped of any alcohol content via a vacuum distillation technique which the company describes as ‘proprietary’. I suspect this technology is now more widespread than the brewer may think. It’s also the method that the majority of German weissbier producers use for their alkoholfrei offerings, and from previous reviews we know that it can produce a high standard AF wheat beer. So what does Grainwave offer to make it stand out from the crowd? The main interesting feature for me is the addition of blood orange to the beer. I love blood orange – I find it a lovely fragrant fruit to eat, and can see it working well in a wheat beer. Indeed, Keith Villa’s previous Blue Moon was famous for being served with a wedge of orange (whether you liked it or not!). Let’s open up this can and take a swig.

The beer is very lively when poured, and comes in a hazy orange hue. There are many visible wheat/yeast particles suspended in the brew, as it hasn’t been filtered. A dense white head can be teased out of the beer with a hard pour, but retention is lacking. The aroma of the beer is fruity sweet citrus, with an especially fragrant floral note from the blood orange. We also get a background of bready wheat, but this is mild.

The floral orange citrus is what greets us when we taste, crisp citrus peel, with a mellow background of wheat and oats. There are slight hints of coriander spice here and there, but the citrus holds sway. Slightly teetering on the sweet side of the flavour spectrum, there is bitterness here too that does a good job of balancing the beer out. The body is light to medium, helped by being unfiltered, and the carbonation level quite pleasing. We get a short fruity finish to the drink.

Ceria Grainwave has many similarities to Mr Villa’s previous triumph Blue Moon, and if you’ve enjoyed that beer before then Grainwave should gel with your taste buds nicely. Like many other alcohol-free wheat beers it’s easy to drink and very refreshing, almost like someone has poured a shot or two of blood orange juice into a quality wit. Yum indeed!

Buy Ceria Grainwave

Ceria’s beers are easily available in the USA but can be harder to find in the UK and elsewhere. While we await the opening of a European arm of the Ceria, you can get your cans of Grainwave from the following shops:

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the can)
ABV	0.5%
Energy	22 kcal
Fat	0g
Carbohydrates	4g
Sugar	Not given
Protein	0.6g
Ingredients
Water, Pale Malt, Malted Wheat, Oats, Hops, Orange Peel, Coriander, Natural Flavour
Additional Information
Country of Production	United States of America
Brewer	Ceria Brewing Co – https://ceriabrewing.com/
Gluten Free?	No
Vegan Friendly?	Yes