Great Lakes Holy Moses White Ale

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: Belgian White (Witbier)
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Came in a pilsner glass. It appeared to be a wheaty yellow color and had a slight amount of head. The aroma contained hints of raisins and flowers. The taste was somewhat bitter, but not overly strong. Pretty simple - I picked up on raisins and spices, but that was about it.

This beer offers a healthy aroma consisting of wheat and yeast. It is a glowing amber solution that has a dismal head. This beer enters the mouth with a tingle produced by the high carbonation. Wheat dominates the taste but the palate is able to detect the presence of orange, nutmeg, and cinnamon hiding in the background.

Bottle pours a hazy golden yellow. Small rocky white head. Smells slightly fruity and floral. Initial thought was slightly sour, spicey, and fruity. very refreshing with a nice sourness that creeps up on you slightly. Flavors of orange and lemon zest and blueberries.

Pours a nice light golden yellow color with a medium sized white head. Aroma is lemony with hints of spices, freshly picked flowers and yeast. Taste is slightly sour, the kind of sour you get from lemon citrus. Also, hints of yeast and wheat can be detected. Very refreshing and enjoyable.

thanks to dav...err, santa for this bottle. nice almost neon yellow pour with a thin film that passed for a head. corriander in the nose, yep that lemon yeast corriander nose that is generally good mixed with other notes but somehow a tad unsatisfying on its own. just heard the line from a song, "like the girls that try to love me that i only leave" i can apply that to this beer. it wants to be a good berr but i just won’t let it. i find reasons to push it away. oily mouthfeel, too much ivy flavor, it is little things, but i keep focusing on them. the yeast is too prominent, but i can still find reasons to happily drink it again. nice pepper note in the finish, lovely citrus profile, not too sweet, not too bitter, well balanced. it evens has that slight paint taste that i like for some reason, hell maybe it is lavender, but just not over done lavender i have found in a few too many beers(i’m looking at you avery twelve). i really want to like love this, but i just like it.

Bottled that is best by Jan. 25th, 2006. It pours to a hazy light golden straw body with a thick rocky white head. The aroma is very yeasty. Floral, spices, wheat, lemon zest. Comes off sour, but I’m sure that’s just the complex aroma. The flavor is quite different from the aroma. I get a light wheaty beer with not much else. Light black pepper and yeasty spices. Pretty plain Jane if you ask me. The flavor is neither bad nor good. Very light. The palate is slick with a light bitterness and is light bodied and watery. Hardly noticeable. Unimpressive. For a "fresh" sample, this is really quite boring. Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca is light years ahead of this brew and is dramatically under-rated.

Poured with the yeast at the bottom of the bottle. This beer sits a fully hazy, orangish gold color with a frothy white head. The aroma is quite spicy with notes of citrus, both orange & lemon, a bit of a hot spicy pepper like note and even a bit of ginger at the end. This is quite spicy overall, even for your typical Wit.

The taste is lightly sweet throughout, but is balanced by a spicy astringent note and a bit of acidity / tartness. The orange character is evident in the taste, perhaps even dominant, but it is not quite as evident as it is in the finish. The beer has a full compliment of spicy notes though; with notes of spicy pepper, even a bit of hot alcohol that is reminiscent of ginger and perhaps even a bit of chile-like heat thankfully it is missing that earthy, distracting note that is characteristic of your typical American coriander, which I don’t think belongs in beer except in minute notes. This beer has a slightly fuller mouthfeel to it than some Wits, but it is still quite light and refreshing.

12 oz bottle, best before January 06. Whew, under the wire! Bright, light gold, very clear until the yeast shot...must have been well-settled...smallish white lasting head, touch of lace...light fruity, lemon-cherry aroma taken over by powerful sour yeastiness...body is lightly malty/bready, lightly sweet-cidery, and hugely sour and cobwebby-farmy-dusty towards the back end....becomes quite bitter and dry to finish, full midpalate body character thins out quite a bit. A mixed bag, this, many somewhat disparate elements don’t really seem to gel, though quality is evident. I don’t dislike it really but I’m glad I just got one I guess.