Amadeus Biere Blanche

Good but not great. Looks better than it tastes. Nice snow-white foamy head and hazy appearance. No balance to it. Aroma is slightly over-citrused. Didn’t have an over hopped aroma, where you get that Pine Sol on the nose. More like too much of an orange/lemon aroma. Just a bit overdone. Slight over tartness on the palate. Finishes somewhat clean and is refreshing, but not a strong wit. Many better offerings in the category.

Bottle Pours out a cloudy light yellow topped with a tall white head. Aroma of citrus and yeast. Tast of sweetness some spice and some yeast.

750mL bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy/fizzy, white, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy light whitish-yellow, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), lightly hoppy (flowers), with a strong note of lemon juice/zest. Flavor is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Light body, watery texture, lively/fizzy carbonation. Gotta give kudos for the color...it’s rare that witbiers really do have a whitish cast, but this one is about as close to what I’d call "white" as I’ve seen in any real beer. Shame it isn’t that good in other respects...smells like lemonade (and not quite the wholesome fresh-squeezed kind either, we’re talking about made-from-powder lemonade here), and it’s quite watery, fizzy, and light bodied. Not bad, mind you, but definitely not that good.

Best By Date September 2009; Sampled July 2008
Pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a four-finger thick, almost pure white colored head. The head leaves lots of lace and forms a rocky surface as it slowly recedes. The beer is a pale straw color with amber highlights. It shows a white haze and a pale color when held up to the light. Aromatics of orange peel are quite noticeable as I pour and inspect this beer. Up closer the orange notes gets even more piquant, almost like orange soda in intensity. The sweet citrus is so intense that I would guess there is something other than orange zest used here. A touch of grassy grain is noticeable if you intently smell the aroma for a bit, but the ϋber-citrus tends to dominate over all other aromas.

Dry tasting with a grassy grain flavor up front. Towards the finish the concentrated citrus notes kick in. It tastes like Picon has been added to this beer, and given that this is a French beer this is not too surprising. Very light bodied, quite a bit like water in its quenching character. This has a certain bitterness to it in the finish that is tied in with the more dominant & even lingering citrus flavors. To sum up, there is not much beer flavor to this beer.

This is certainly quaffable, even quenching, but it is quite simplistic for a Wit. The amp’d up, almost artificial citrus character is just a bit too dominant; and I even like a healthy dose of citrus character in my Wits.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

750 ml corked and caged bottle poured a hazy yellow with a lasting white head leaving behind good lacing. Aromas of citrus, clove, coriander, wheat and a hint of vanilla. Palate was light to medium bodied and smooth. Flavors of lemon, clove, coriander, wheat and a hint of vanilla with a smooth lingering citrus finish.