Portsmouth Belgian Style White Ale

Brewed by Portsmouth Brewery
Style: Belgian White (Witbier)
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

On tap at the brew pub. Light gold in color and hazy with a decent sized head. Aroma is of citrus, yeast and light spices. Taste is of yeast, citrus, dough, a little honey andgood carbonation.

Banana citrus and clove make up the aroma, with a bit of nectar and caramel. Flavor is quite citrusy with some sweeter malt and spice notes. Palate is smooth with an excellent body for the style, finishing semi-dry and crisp. Great example of a refreshing style.

Sample at the brewpub. Pours a hazy golden with a soapy white bright head. Aroma is typical orange zest, coriander herbal fruity notes with doughy wheat and a bit of solvent, cleanser- soap with wamr chloriney biscuit notes- strange. Lemon zest, dough wheat and light phenolic belgian yeast with more orangey coriander and earth. Finish is pretty smooth.

20080729 Tap at brewpub. Golden color. Not very wit like but a tasty wheat beer nonetheless. Lemony citrus. More like an American wheat to me.

Pours clear gold with a cola-like effervescence. A faint white head barely made an appearance before fizzling to nothingness. Zero lacework. Aromatics are an interesting mix of orange peel, grape jam, honey, and bubblegum. Some mild coriander rounds out the nose along with some doughy malt. Light bodied and slightly creamy. A low carbonation level causes the beer to fall a bit flat on the tongue. Bitter orange peel, coriander, earthy cumin, and lemon zest lead off the pallet. Some dusty wheat malt follows through along with some silky oaks and clove-studded bannana. Finishes somewhat watery with fading mild spicing and a lemony dryness. I think a higher level of carbonation and some yeast in suspension would have made a world of difference with this brew. On the second half of the bottle I swirled the yeast into the brew and it added a nice yeast bite.

Nice citrus flavor, with an excellent light color with thick head. I would come back for more.

This poured golden in color with a fluffy white head. The nose was spicy with aromas of orange, corriander, yeast and a bit of rock candy. In the mouth it was medium-bodied and smooth but on the simple side.

Draught @ Portsmouth Brewpub. Pours hazy gold, with a nice, fluffy white head. Nose is citrus, a bit of banana, some coriander. Taste is clean, spicy wheat, moving quickly to banana and bubble gum with a very clean coriander and lemon zest bitterness on the finish. Med light body with crisp carbonation. Almost tastes like a wit made with Bavarian hefe yeast. Interesting beer, though doesn’t fit so well into strict style guidelines.