Wittekerke

Brewed by Bavik-De Brabandere
Style: Belgian White (Witbier)
Harelbeke, Belgium

Bottle. Cloudy, straw colored brew with a small, quickly vanishing head. Floral aroma with lemon other fruitiness. I taste heavy banana flavors and a mild sourness. An easy drinking beer for a hot day with enough flavor to keep things interesting.

Keg (St. Urho’s, Helsinki) Very light cloudy yellow. Flowery light aroma and refreshing taste. Full of unroasted grain taste. Not as sharp as I like in a blanche.

Can. Pours hazy murky yellow with a thin bright white head. Yeasty dryness on the nose. Some light lemon sourness. Slightly flora. Nice balance of creamy and carbonated on the palate. Fairly simple flavor: yeast, malt, lemongrass, cloves, berries with none really dominating over any other. Pleasant beer.

Can. pours a very light cloudy color with a decent white head. Decent not to fruity or spicy. Much less of a yeast profile than I had expected. I prefer this to hoegaarden because its not so fruity.

Can; Poured a murky pale yellow; looked pretty close to straw. Smallish white head. Aroma of lemon, wheat and yeast. Somewhat creamy, with a dry (lightly floral hopped finish). Flavor was lemon and wheat, with a slight hint of spice. About average for the style, but still enjoyable and refreshing.

Draft. Dry aroma of yeast and grain (like a typical white beer). Flavor pretty much the same but sweet and fruity, a little worse than a hoeggarden. Good amount of carbonation.

I have never been a fan of wheat beer but with warm weather coming soon I needed to find something other then saison to brew in the summertime. “Let’s give Belgium wheat beer a try. I went into my local craft beer store and told them what I wanted. The beer store guy recommended Wittekerke. He said not to let the fact that it was is cans fool me. He said it was among his favorite beers. He wa right. It is a smooth evenly balanced beer. A little more carbonated then other beers but not terribly hoppy and not too wheat tasting which has always turned me off on other wheat beers. I find this to be an extremely satisfying brew and recommend it even to those that don’t like wheat beer.

11.2 ounce can purchased from BevMo. Nice, assertive, lemony citrus aroma with some biscuit malty notes, too. Lightly floral and very aromatic. Nice and quaffable. Mildly opaque pale straw-colored body with a dacent white head that has some good stamina. Light lemony, citric flavors to start, which quickly dissipate into a more grainy, biscuity flavoring. A bit milky toward the end with a small floral hoppiness present, too. This is quite enjoyable and it is a shame that more beers of this quality are not canned.