In spite of VBDCK's intentions to stay away from Belgian traditions, their latest creation is this witbier, spiced with coriander as the tradition prescribes, but also with lemon peel replacing the classic curaçao - a 'blanche' with a little twist, so to speak, adding to a string of similar beers from many years past, in which the almighty Hoegaarden standard was cautiously tinkered with by slightly altering the spicing, or even omitting it altogether (think of Abbaye des Rocs' classic Blanche des Honnelles, for example). This one has a medium thick, snow white, rather creamy ('wheaty'), irregularly lacing, quite dense and stable head and misty warm 'old-golden' robe (clearly darker blonde than most other witbieren) with a string of enthusiastic sparkling in the middle, turning fully hazy and a shade darker blonde even with the sediment added. Aroma of freshly baked bread (crust), crackers, coriander seed, unripe peach, dried apple peel, dusty old dried out lemon peel, lemonbalm from an old herbarium, straw, cooked turnip, rainwater, mugwort, cold French fries and a faint background touch of DMS (cooked Brussels sprouts) but faint enough not to annoy me too much. Fruity, restrainedly sweet onset, hints of unripe peach and vague banana peel again, quite soft carbonation for the style but with minerally spring- and rainwater-like effects edging a smooth, slick body; clear bready barley, bread crust- and cracker-like, mixed with very subtly sourish and soapy wheat, but the barley clearly has a lot more to say than the wheat here in comparison with other witbieren - probably because the brewery opted for malted wheat here rather than raw wheat, which makes a very big difference and deviates from the Hoegaarden standard, instead drawing inspiration from German Weissbier. Spicy elements in the finish indeed, outspoken clove-like phenols interfering with the actual spicing, but the refreshing qualities of the lemon peel and that soapy-spicy effect from coriander seed are both very clearly recognisable. Surprisingly, however, the finish is even more dominated by a long, rooty, peppery hop bitterness, and even when the minerally and spicy effects linger about, it is this bitterness that quenches the thirst the most. The hops are obvious enough in the nose, too, so this is, in hindsight, probably what most distinguishes this Organic Wit from the Hoegaarden witbier standard, which is typically and traditionally only very softly and subtly hopped (and probably were even unhopped centuries ago in the earliest phase of their history). In all, a refreshing beer indeed (though this probably would have worked better a few months from now - it is still February, after all), a very solid addition to the modern list of hoppy Belgian wheat beers; 'witbier' could indeed create wrong expectations from those who loved the style back when it was still popular, as this interpretation is far removed from the classic Hoegaarden standard. Pleasantly surprised!