Adriaan Wit

Bottle at home, hazy yellow beer, small head, aroma is yeast and some citrus, taste is the same, tasty witbier

Lekker strandbiertje :-D

I have tasted this Belgian style witbier many years ago in the original Van Steenberge version and described it briefly as follows: "hazy peach blonde beer with moussy head and malt sweet and spicy character, some acetaldehyde (green apple) with wheaty sourishness, refreshing, retronasal coriander, dryishly sourish finish". Now I am revisiting it (thanks Craftmember for the bottle!) and it seems it hasn’t changed dramatically. It pours a typical ’white’, i.e. a foggy yellow blonde with olive green hue under a creamy, lightly lacing, dense, egg shell white head; aroma of acetaldehyde (green apple, fresh sorrel or raw rhubarb) just the same as before, a considerable amount of soapy wheat of course, obvious coriander crawling up the nostrils, hints of lime peel, stewed chicory, black cardamom, raw white cabbage, spiced cookies, dry straw, chicken spices, bubblegum, powder sugar. Taste begins with subdued fruity esters, hints of gooseberry, green apple, peach and a tad banana, medium carbo, clear sourishness coming from within - the large dosis of wheat manifesting itself as expected; a smooth barley ’breadiness’ comes up as well, but all the while the coriander seed is drawing attention and becomes resiny, bittersweet and even a little bit wry in the end, along with a much more sedate touch of dried citrus peel. Mouthfeel is smooth, but also a bit starchy - has actual starch been added here to guarantee the cloudiness typical for this style, like in Hoegaarden Witbier? The drying ending is due to this starch effect for a small part, but much more due to coriander than anything else: this wit is exaggerating the coriander factor, that much is clear. I faintly get a (slightly!) above average amount of deep, dim, earthy but somewhat grassy hops as well, with a certain mild bittering power. Still, that over-the-top coriander effect is so overpowering here that it remains for a long time and dominates anything else, even more strongly so than is usually the case in (actually) Belgian witbiers; quite importantly though, there is a crisp, lemony sourishness accompanying the whole, with an incomparably quenching quality to it. In all: considering my original notes of 2005 when this (and other Jopen beers) was still brewed at Van Steenberge, and when I tasted it at one of Ben Vinken’s Bierpassieweekends which was attended by the late Michael Jackson, I do not have the impression it has changed an awful lot: it is still a genuine Belgian wit, but with a kind of stereotypical Dutch arrogance, with more of the ’coriander effect’ than usual and more of the citrus crispness than usual, resulting in a flavour profile which can be described as quite characterful, ’bolder’ than average and utterly quenching. I am not witbier’s greatest fan, but I have to admit these beers generally have an extremely gentle, delicate, elegant character with great thirst-quenching ’powers’ and this one surely is no different - in fact, this shows even more ’oumph’ than is normally the case in wits. Top quality witbier I’d say, if you were to limit this style to the old Hoegaarden and its epigones. This, in that particular sense, is way better than Hoegaarden itself, that much is clear.

0,33L bottle (from Drink Shop), BB 04.2015. Pours clear golden with white head. The head disappears immediately. Aroma is fruits, citrus, yeast, some spices. Flavor is sweet, wheat, spices, yeast. Finish is dry bitter, carbonation is rather high. Overall: appearance is very disappointing, but otherwise ok-ish.

Bottle. Clear straw with small white head. Lots of yeast, coriander, some nutmeg and cloves. Also a light citrus peel with faint herbal noted. Taste is very light with some sweetness. Medium bodied with watery feel. Meh