Illa Swilla Wit
Mt. Begbie Brewing Co.

 

 

650ml bottle - great name for a beer, period, and even better that it's based on the name of a real location, a river near the brewery in Revelstoke.

This beer pours a hazy, yet bright pale golden yellow colour, with one finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and mostly bubbly off-white head, which leaves some decent craggy grotto lace around the glass as things lazily fall away.

It smells of sharp, grainy wheat malt, a touch of bready caramel, white pepper dust, banana chips, orange zest, ethereal yeast, and plain leafy, weedy hops. The taste is more or less in line - grainy, slightly doughy wheat malt, a free-range sugary essence, coriander and muddled table pepper spice, more mixed banana and citrus fruitiness, and still very tame earthy, leafy hop bitters.

The bubbles are fairly heady in their fizzy and frothy goings-on, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, neither the spice nor benign hoppiness up for a confrontation. It finishes off-dry, barely, as the grainy wheatiness sheds its sweetness, and the fruitiness hems and haws.

A pleasant and enjoyable enough witbier, the fruit and spice esters judiciously spread around. Easy-quaffing summer fare, this one is, more of which I intend to take in, as I make my way through that part of world in the coming weeks - watch out, 'cause I'm the real Illa Swilla!