Old World Wit
Old World Brewery

 

 

Once poured, it glowed a hazy golden orange with hay-colored highlights. The foam quickly rose to just under two fingers thick and left minimal lacing along the glass. There was a lot of carbonation initially, but it seemed to disappear as I sipped away at it.

The aroma was a sickeningly sweet orange peel and coriander concoction, almost potpourri at first, dwindling into a bitter hoppyness accompanied by a faint whiff of tart wheat. The orange peel and the coriander were by far the leading smells emanating from the beer, closely followed by the bitter, tart grains.

The taste is pretty close to the scent, only lighter. There were the close-to-overwhelming citrus flavors that resembled both oranges and lemons - very tart, an odd bitterness that stung my tongue on impact but mellowed out after each swallow, and the coriander picking up the tail. The carbonation didn't hold well through the drink and by the end I was left with a sour taste in my mouth (due to the presence of lactic acid) and a rather flat mouth feel. Not my favorite way to finish off a beer.

A soft pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a two-finger thick, almost white colored head. The beer is a white sheened gold hue that shows a hazy, straw gold color when held up to the light. The aroma smells predominantly of orange peel, but also has notes of grassy coriander, perhaps a hint of dusty grain, and perhaps some tart wheat character. Not nearly as bad as I was fearing, but it is quite dominated by the orange peel aromatics.

Tart tasting and fairly dry, the beer finishes with an ample orange zest flavor that mingles with the tartness found in this beer. Soft dried hay like grain, some tart wheat and a touch of cracker like grain play a very subdued role here, but are noticeable. This is quite light and the orange zest and tartness make for a very quaffable beer. Flavors of earthy, slightly dirty coriander are actually fairly present up front and in the middle of this beer.

This beer is clearly dominated by the orange zest, so much so that the beer ends up being pretty simplistic. If you like orange zest and light quaffable beers then this might just be the beer for you. In the end this is not nearly as bad as I had been led to believe, but if I hadn't been expecting so little I doubt I would have been nearly as relieved by this beer.

I saw the one bad review on here, and terrible though it was, I figured it's only one review, so I gave it a try after finding it at Trader Joes.

Pours out looking like a thick glass of apple cider. No head at all. The deep golden color leaves me hoping there is some nice flavor in there though.

Smells fine enough, strong citrus with a little spice in the smell as well.

The taste is very overpowering with a pinesol-esque citrus! There really isn't much of the spice that it claims to be brewed with.

The beer does have a nice creamy texture that I found much more enjoyable than the flavor itself. I would not drink another however.

In my opinion, this is the best of Old Worlds offerings. They are new so they may improve in time. This being a Belgian Wit it probably covers up some of the problems that their other beers have. The wit is a light golden color with a sweet orange peel and belgian yeast aroma. Head was minimal but I had it in a plastic glass at a beerfest. Not as lively, fresh or as clean as a wit usually is. Missing the coriander spice. Not one that I would drink more than one of.

Updated review- Had this beer on draft at the Sheraton of all places. I asked for a sample of it as I have yet to hear anything positive about any of their beers. Not only has this place not improved the quality of the beer I feel it has gotten worse if that is at all possible. Beer was nothing but an infection bomb. I can't believe they sell this crap to the unsuspecting public.