De Witte
Dageraad Brewing

 

Cloudy orange-straw color. Poured a short head that dropped down to nothing in less than a minute. Too cloudy to see the carbonation level. Left no lacing.

Strong sour fruit smell; light passionfruit (it got stronger as it warmed up) with a much stronger tropical fruit that I can't identify, maybe underripe cherimoya. Very light yeast funk. Very light wheat flour smell. Swirling the glass kicked up a mild barnyard with burning rubber smell for a few seconds, then it reverted to the previous scents.

Starts with a medium bitter burst that is quickly replaced with tart fruit. Light yeast. There is a very faint burning rubber flavor that rides just at the level of awareness; weirdly it provides a good counterpoint to the tarty fruit. Some of the light malt and a resurgence of bitters come around as it warms up. The aftertaste is a sharper bitter and more fruit as the tart fades away. The effect is of eating some fruit peel or pith.

Mild tongue tingling. Quickly turns into a large bubbled foam. A bit thick and oily. A bit astringent, leaving a bit of a gummy feeling.

I suspect that the burning rubber flavor came from cooking up the passionfruit a little more than it could have been. Since it added such an interesting counterpoint I don't know if it would be worthwhile trying to cut back on the cooking time or temperature to eliminate the flavor. Note that my worst rated beer tasted almost entirely of burning tires and chemical plant, so this is a huge departure. Be sure to mix in any sediment as so much of the fruit flavor seems to be tied to it.

 

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle, a purported 'sour-fermented passionfruit wheat ale, dry-hopped with Citra'. Oh, yeah.

This beer pours a hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with a near-total teeming tower (bottle conditioning, FTW!) of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly fizzy bone-white head, which leaves some high-flying sudsy island group lace around the glass as it lazily recedes. Crazy amount of swirling effervescence after the fact, too.

It smells of bready and doughy pale and wheaten malt, soured milk, mixed domestic citrus and more heady tropical fruity notes, a laid-back earthy yeastiness, some tame gritty spiciness, and further leafy, weedy, and grassy green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and crackery pale malt, a lesser edgy wheatiness, muddled citrus (ok, some typical lemon and underripe orange and white grapefruit pith), well-bred yeast, a still kind of off-seeming milkiness, further indistinct tropical fruity esters - passionfruit, I suppose - a minor sense of table-top spice lost, and more understated leafy, herbal, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is duly affected by the bullshit bottle conditioning effects, via its once blown, and twice innocuous frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and more or less smooth, as if it was somehow programmed in, despite the prevailing conditions. It finishes off-dry, with the mixed malt, lingering citrus, and gentle sour characters playing us out.

Overall, this De Witte is Da Bomb, as per usual with this very on the ball Belgian-friendly Lower Mainland brewing concern. Other than the bathroom sink spoon-necessitating bubble situation, everything else just duly falls into place. Easy to drink, fruity, gently spicy, and even less so sour. Another hit, in a string of them, IMHO.

 

 

This is a Lacto-fermented witbier with passionfruit, and then dry-hopped with Citra. A really nice, easy drinking fruit beer for the summer. Nice and crisp (not sweet).

 

 

Bottle: Poured a super light hazy yellow color ale with a nice pure white foamy head. Aroma of light wheat malt with some citrusy and tropical fruit notes and some light tart notes. Taste is a complex and easy drinking mix of wheat malt with dry citrusy and tropical fruit notes with some tart notes and a somewhat dry finish. Body is light with good carbonation. Very interesting mix of different flavours to create something out of the ordinary.

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at St Augustine's

Appearance: Yellow and cloudy.
Smell and Taste: Citrusy, yeasty. Slightly sour.