Dark Horse Sapient Summer Wheat

Formerly brewed at Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Belgian White (Witbier)
Marshall, Michigan USA

Orange coloured, hazy. Clean and dry with some lemon and some vanilla. Unusually bitter finish for a wheat beer.

Light, wheaty, hint of lemon. Murky appearance. Overall a lightly crisp wheat, not spectacular though given the previous beers I might just have ’lost’ my palate.

Bottle courtesy of SuIIy: Pours a lightly effervescent copper bronze with a pillowy, well-lacing off-white head. Aroma of soft buttery malted wheat with a touch of oxidation. Starts with a thin, semi-sweet bready maltiness with a faded hint of coriander and citrus. Finishes thin, dry and with some lingering black pepper. Pretty interesting brew, but most likely past its prime.

Lemon and wheat on the nose, but also skunk, alas! Let's hope its just the nose. Lovely cloudy medium amber, largeish frosty head. Mmmm luckily the flavor isn't skunked, this is quite good. Creamy and refreshing at first, but peppery and spicy at the end. Shame about the nose; maybe it's just me in this case?

Deep amber hue with large frothy head and very good lace. The aroma has notes of wheat, lemongrass, orange zest, coriander, star anise, and floral hops. The taste is citric and lemony at the start with a yeasty background. Picked up some bitterness and spice tones towards the finish. The monuthfeel is lively and refreshing but does have a dryness about it when done. Overall, a good summer wheat, different than some within it’s genre, refreshing.

2003 bottle. Wow, had no idea this was supposed to be a wit. Taste seemed to have some pale malt in it, light hops, a dry straw-like flavor and not much else. Good color, just a pretty neutral amber-yellow. Bottle conditioned, lightly spicy, grassy aroma. Pretty basic, but still enjoyable during the summer.

A very spicy affair, reminiscent of a Bell’s Oberon mixed with ground black pepper. One of the more ’bitey’ wits I’ve had in awhile. This beer’s courtesy of PsychProf, who is known to love a good wit. The quality is evident, even if the beer’s not quite my thing. There’s maybe a hint of sourness under all the spice.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with Sully, thanks Mike!) Received this retired gem yesterday, drinking it today. Wow, if all "Summer Wheat" beers looked like this, I might like the style a lot more. But I have to think this this bottle has seen significant aging, probably over 18 months, as it tastes and smells fairly woodsy and earthy, slightly oxidized. No way a summer wheat should be earthy like this. A mild wheat base peeks out from under the long-fallen trees. Moderate apple skin is the other significant flavor here. Not getting much in the way of spiciness, maybe a tad of pepper. Body is light-medium and carbonation is very good. Very cloudy, dark golden color, made even murkier by significant particles of all sizes, and there is plenty more where that came from (i.e., the bottom of the bottle). Tall, bubbly, off-white head rises to nearly an inch, taking many minutes to settle to a wide ring. Patchy lacing is deposited on the glass. It’s decent, but only because I tend to like some earthiness in my beers, though the apple skin flavor gets on my nerves after awhile. But if I were buying beer at a package store and bought a sixer of this because I was craving a summer wheat, I would be bitterly disappointed when I opened the first bottle.