Middle Ages Swallow Wit

Brewed by Middle Ages Brewing
Style: Belgian White (Witbier)
Syracuse, New York USA

Pours a blonde foggy body with cascading bubbles that leave a thick off-white head. The smell is wheat, orange, must, cherry, and grass what a wonderful nose. The taste starts wheat malty no real wheat twang mostly a sweet bready feel on the palate, some citrus spiciness also comes into play. The carbonation is medium-heavy just to refresh this brew on your tongue. In the finish there is a slight hoppy bite but very faint. This is malt heavy but great taste, nose, and overall refreshing.

Bottle (12oz). Bright clear gold, bubbly, average foamy white head. Bready aroma, tangy ripe apple, light sugary malt, hint of white wine, dry wheaty grain. Taste is pretty grainy, sugary malt and yeast, not much hop character - dry, sweet, sticky, not very carbonated; the alcohol wasn’t noticeable in the taste but my ears warmed quite soon after sipping this. A little too grainy, but not bad - nice yeast/malt balance.

Several samples at the Brewery. I guess it can’t be any better than that. It was light, it was dry it went down easy. The high alcohol wasn’t noticeable, but hey, it’s a Belgian and is true to class. A good hot weather beer.

Dark yellow color with no real head. Light citrusy aroma. Sweet malt flavor. Nice. 7/2/8/4/16

RERATE: On tap at the brewery. Golden color with white head. Aroma isn’t too nice, actually smells a little like urine. The flavor has some good wheat character but I was overwhelmed but the aroma. I wanted to like this based on my last rating of it, but this wasn’t enjoyable at all.

Draught pint at Sunset Grill on 4/27/06
Dull bronze to creamsicle orange colored body is darker than the modern wit, though well in line with a traditional wit. Fully cloudy, with no carbonation apparent and absolutely no head or lacing.
Light fruitiness emanating from the liquid, some tangerines, peaches and apricots mostly, with some wheat dryness and low spice levels (just a touch of tanginess from the coriander and orange peel). Plenty of hard water/mineral-like notes from the yeast, somewhat weak overall and not exactly crisp. The malts are deeper and lightly toasty. Reminds me of apricot/marmalade atop toasted English muffins. The minerals give a hard edge to the end of the aroma, as well, that seems to dull the strength.
It begins very yeast driven, with plenty of mineral overtones. Some light tangerine and lemon nip at the tongue at first, with a fizzy carbonation that is strong at first and then fully passing, leaving the finish a bit soggy/wet. Wheat dryness seems a bit heavy, even for a wit, while the pale malts are rather sugary and simple, giving ample malt flavor, but not much complexity. Though the mineral-flavors add complexity, it dosent seem to mesh with dry coriander and citrus fruits. You gotta applaud these guys for sticking to their guns, but I just don’t see Ringwood yeast working for a witbier. Though it does remind me of Abbaye des Rocs’ Witbier, it has some toastiness, more sweetness and a touch of earthiness, with plenty of yeast nuance. The carbonation on draught really works against it though, this needs natural carbonation to give it a tighter mouthfeel. The looseness/wateriness on end only works against the stronger malts and flurry of yeast flavors. Some light diacetyl is present on the very end. The alcohol was listed at 7.1 but it is not notable in either flavor or aroma.
If they would release this in bottle conditioned bottles, I think it would be really successful.

Draft at Sunset grill 4/27/06. Pours a light copperish color with basically no head. Body is clear but clean. Palate is crisp and clean. Flavors of light lemon and yeast. Fairly simplistic and watery. Aroma is light lemon and some light hops.

The kind of beer you just say "it was ok." Bit flat, mild taste. Not what I would order a second time, but no regrets. You have to try the local brew.

Definitely has a spice kick to it. Cloudy/hazy light yellow coloring and a fruity/spicy aroma. I could see this as a refreshing brew for a hot summer day.