Quite good, if not very dense, lightly yellowish head, soon gone over hazy peach to yellow coloured beer. Bit dusty nose, with some citrus, dry spices; some mineral, almost salty notes, seafood, and floormop. Again dry-ish, vague citrus (apparently, no coriander added, but I wouldn't bet my money on that one). Mineral again, when more reduced than the nose suggested, and certainly not salty. Finish is dry-bitterish, more as (citrus)peel than as hops. Hints of wheat and other grains. Feels very, almost aggressively carbonated. Yet quite slick, dry. Aftertaste as good as non-existant. Wanting (?) to do different, ending even more ubiquitous. The French would say: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Txs to Stef!

Witbier variant by what was once Amsterdam's most talked about craft brewery - I visited it one time in Amsterdam north and loved it - which in 2023 fell into Heineken's greedy clutches; flavoured classically with orange peel, but also very unclassically with mandarin puree and green peppercorns replacing the - only since the sixties - normally obligatory coriander seed. Can from the Albert Heijn supermarket in Lokeren. Medium sized, snow white, opening but otherwise stable, dot-lacing head - frankly not looking too much like a classic witbier head - over a misty yellow-straw golden robe with olive tinge and tiny-bubbled yet lively sparkling. Aroma of dried orange peel, fruit tea of some kind, white bread dough, mandarin jelly (not marmalade though - something far more industrial and bland), pear, cold oatmeal porridge, angelica, something green and peppery I guess but not necessarily green peppercorns, watermelon, cold fries, very faint hints at chicken spice and vanilla. Sweetish onset, fruity with notes of ripe pear, a touch of pineapple and hints of guava and banana, moderately carbonated with slick, slender mouthfeel; a very vague touch of non-salty shellfish passes by somewhere, before a full-fledged wheat flavour comes along, slightly sourish and soapy, but most of all white-bready, carrying a heavy load of added, sweetish flavouring - orange peel I guess, but more of that sweet mandarin purée. Spiciness should then quickly come from coriander if the classic template were followed, but in this case I expected it to be replaced by something more powerful, namely those green peppercorns they promised - but alas, very little happens. There is of course a noticeable peppery aspect, but it feels futile in this whole - even the hops, though (justly for style) applied very sparingly, seem to have a bit more power than the pepper. Ends, therefore, only very mildly spicy, but primarily - and, to me, unfortunately - sweetish, though in a natural kind of way, with banana esters and residual sugars making up most of that sweetness. The mandarin purée of course only reinforces it - and that is where Oedipus, the brewery who craft beer afficionados once thought could do nothing wrong, goes wrong: less of that mandarin thing (or better still: none at all) and much more of those green peppercorns could have made me feel the original Oedipus vibe more. On top of that, deviating from Pierre Celis's old and tested Hoegaarden recipe in trying to create new interpretations of witbier has been done (a lot) before even outside of Belgium many a moon ago, sometimes with more pleasantly innovative results than this. Has Oedipus finally succumbed to Heineken's demands in meeting a large, sweet-toothed audience here? If so, I think we lost a once great and inspiring name in Dutch craft brewing forever. I hope I am wrong.

Blik 33cl thuis. Wheaty, wat orange peel, fruitig, mandarijn, haver, pepertje, niet zo zoet, citrustonen, licht droog, wat bittertonen. (24-4-2026).

Can from a local supermarket. Citrusy and wheaty with lemon, peppery yeast. Light to mild bittersweet flavour. Body is medium. An okay Wit.

Can 33cl. from AH XL in Muiden @home poured into a tumbler. Misty pale golden colour, good steady white moussy head, light lacing. Aroma wheat, yeast, lemon grass, orange peel, light cloves and coriander. Taste medium sweet, slightly bitter and acidic, malty, lemon, spicy notes. Light body, watery texture, soft carbonation, sweetbitter and lemony aftertaste, well-balanced, refreshing, very nice.

#wit #wheat