Tap @ Trattoria Paolangelo, Matera. Bit hazy golden beer with good and stable head. Aroma and flavor is yeast, herbs and fruits. Tasty and rich on flavours, actually quite good. Body is strong enough.

Õlle on selline jook, et iga uus kord kui klaasi või pudeli suule tõstad, siis leiad midagi uut, sõltuvalt tuhandest-miljonist pisiasjast, mis hetke olukorda mõjutavad. Seega piirdun iga õlle juures selle tekstiga. 4,5% ABV.

The old Belgian witbier was literally extinct when the late Pierre Celis began working on its revival in the sixties, and his efforts to put it on the world map were very fruitful to say the least. There is Molson Coors, now under MillerCoors, creating their now ubiquitous Blue Moon in 1995 in the States, there is Allagash White in the craft beer movement launched that same year, and there is Baladin's Isaac, launched in 1997 in Italy. Isaac is often regarded as a historic moment in Italian craft brewing (even if Baladin had created a few other beers a year earlier) so it comes as no surprise that the Belgian wit or 'blanche' has remained a familiar beer genre in Italy ever since, with several of the more industrial macro breweries there trying to cash in on it as well. This is Birra Morena's attempt, a brand bought from Heineken by the Tarricone family; the ingredients list at least sums up all the classic elements, including coriander seed and curaçao, but also actual orange peel (which is botanically, historically and 'gastronomically' not the same as curaçao). Stubby 33 cl bottle from the large Carrefour supermarket in Sint-Denijs-Westrem near Ghent. Loose, off-white, mousy, audibly crackling, open head, quickly reduced to an interrupted, waferthin ring; cloudy ochre-hued peach blonde robe. Aroma of a whole lot of coriander but in a much more 'herbal' way than I am used to from Belgian beers, almost reminiscent of some East Asian noodle soup; other impressions include pear, orange peel indeed, leftover dough, lemon juice going a bit stale, oxidized apple flesh, not so fresh cucumber, celeriac, soap - in all, nothing truly artificial, but nothing truly flattering either. Sweetish and (almost a bit lactic-)sourish onset, fruitiness of unripe peach, green apple, some banana, cucumber, eggplant even, softish carb, slick and notably soapy mouthfeel; wheat soapiness becomes underlying wheat sourishness, with a more bready-doughy barley counterpart, all heavily spiced with the coriander (again, Asian noodle soup-ish) and less so with citrus peel in dried form. Sweetish maltiness and fruitiness linger but the soapiness of the coriander in combination with the wheat becomes a bit much - hops are limited to a vague rooty touch all the way at the back, as they are supposed to in this style at least from a classical viewpoint, but something went a bit out of balance here. Nothing horrible happening here, in fact this is quite a different approach to witbier, but somehow something does not feel entirely right. Not 'my' beer, Italy has a lot more to offer when it comes to artisanal beers (and not only thanks to Belgium...).

Bottle from Carrefour or Albert Heijn. Pours hazy yellow with a slowly thinning, frothy, white head. Aroma of orange peel, wheat, farmland, barley, coriander. Taste has sweetish orange & apple, bready-yeasty backbone, sour wheat & a tad soapy at that, with spicy bitter coriander mostly active in the dry, grassy hoppy finish, orange peel balances it out. Medium body, slick texture, fizzy carbonation. Refreshing but forgettable.

Bottle, 0.33l. Aroma of citrus, coriander, cereals and yeast. Pours cloudy pale golden color with large frothy white head and sparkling appearance. Taste starts refreshing citrusy, grainy and yeasty with spicy mouthfeel and mild bitter finish. Light body, oily texture and lively carbonation in palate. Passabile on a hot summer day somewhere in Puglia...