Charles Henri Blanche Belge
Brasserie Les 2 Frères

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

500ml bottle - a nice tribute by the brewers to their grandfather, and thus a timely arrival on Alberta store shelves.

This beer pours a cloudy, very pale golden straw colour, with three fingers of puffy, nicely foamy, and bubbly bone-white head, which leaves some stellar webbed lace around the glass as it slowly bleeds away.

It smells of semi-sweet, grainy wheat malt, a prominent white pepper and coriander spice, soft fleshy orange notes, and mild earthy, leafy, and floral hops. The taste is quite consistent - a pleasantly gritty wheaty graininess, peppy coriander and muddled table pepper dust, an increasingly complex citrus fruitiness (orange peel, lemon, and a twist of lime), a subtle earthy yeastiness, and more plain, hard to pin down leafy, floral hops.

The carbonation is very thoroughly capable in its swirling frothiness, the body medium-light in weight, and discernibly smooth, with a small airy creaminess. It finishes off-dry, both the gentle wheat malt and lingering spicy fruitiness subscribing to a successful doctrine of laissez-faire beer economics, to the benefit of us all.

Wow - this is what any witbier should aspire to - simple, flavourful, and well-rounded via its constituent ingredients, with nothing approaching acridity or off-flavours in the least. Perhaps that means a lessening of the house yeast, but that's a small price to pay (I presume), for such an easy-drinking and pleasurable offering.