Wisp
Is/Was Brewing
- From:
- Is/Was Brewing
- Illinois, United States
- Style:
- Smoked Beer
- ABV:
- 5.9%
- Score:
- +6 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 4.12 | pDev: 6.55%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 2
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Monday at 03:55 PM
- Added:
- Jan 26, 2021
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
-
-
Smoked Saison brewed with Stojal Malt, dried over Ader wood fires.
Wisp is an evolving enigma that features Stjørdal malted barley from Sugar Creek Malt. Stjørdal malt is created in a traditional Nordic process of drying the malt over Alder wood fires. This process imparts a unique smoke character that evolves as you get deeper into your glass. At first you will get aromas of Alder smoke, persimmon, raisins and dates but as your pallet acclimates to the smoke you’ll discover notes of freshly tilled earth, grilled peaches, roasted strawberries, honeysuckle, black pepper, and clove. The body is delightfully light and the finish is pleasantly clean and succinct.
Wisp is an evolving enigma that features Stjørdal malted barley from Sugar Creek Malt. Stjørdal malt is created in a traditional Nordic process of drying the malt over Alder wood fires. This process imparts a unique smoke character that evolves as you get deeper into your glass. At first you will get aromas of Alder smoke, persimmon, raisins and dates but as your pallet acclimates to the smoke you’ll discover notes of freshly tilled earth, grilled peaches, roasted strawberries, honeysuckle, black pepper, and clove. The body is delightfully light and the finish is pleasantly clean and succinct.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by vurt from Oregon
3.8/5 rDev -7.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.8/5 rDev -7.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
500 mL bottle purchased at The Beermongers in Portland, OR. Label indicates this beer was bottled in September 2025. Enjoyed in a Fort George Lupulin Ecstasy Festival taster glass.
The body is the Venn diagram overlap of peach-amber-gold, and slightly cloudy with a few floaties. The head is as thick as shaving cream, and has great retention but doesn't leave a lot of lacing. The nose is proudly smoky with lots of spicy phenolics on a bed of mildly sweet malt. There are notes of wheat bread, stone fruit, pepper, ginger, wet earth.
The flavor smacks you in the mouth with a punch of tangy smoke. The smoke fades a little in the middle, but the tangy character reverberates. This beer is bone dry. There is some peach and berry character but no sweetness. Notes of pepper, nutmeg, dry malt, minerals, hot plastic, scorched watermelon, and a ping of something metallic. When I poured the second glass, I got a touch of apple skin that wasn't there in the first pour, and also a morsel of sweetness (not much). The deep smoke pervades the beer from the first sip to the end of the long, long aftertaste. A hint of burnt caramel at the very end. The body is light-to-medium with frothy carbonation.
I started off finding Wisp more interesting than actually delicious. But by the end of the second pour I was ready for another glass. (Which was similar to my original experience with rauchbiers in general, come to think of it.) Highly recommended for anyone who isn't frightened off by smoke aromas and flavors in their beer.
Monday at 03:55 PMThe body is the Venn diagram overlap of peach-amber-gold, and slightly cloudy with a few floaties. The head is as thick as shaving cream, and has great retention but doesn't leave a lot of lacing. The nose is proudly smoky with lots of spicy phenolics on a bed of mildly sweet malt. There are notes of wheat bread, stone fruit, pepper, ginger, wet earth.
The flavor smacks you in the mouth with a punch of tangy smoke. The smoke fades a little in the middle, but the tangy character reverberates. This beer is bone dry. There is some peach and berry character but no sweetness. Notes of pepper, nutmeg, dry malt, minerals, hot plastic, scorched watermelon, and a ping of something metallic. When I poured the second glass, I got a touch of apple skin that wasn't there in the first pour, and also a morsel of sweetness (not much). The deep smoke pervades the beer from the first sip to the end of the long, long aftertaste. A hint of burnt caramel at the very end. The body is light-to-medium with frothy carbonation.
I started off finding Wisp more interesting than actually delicious. But by the end of the second pour I was ready for another glass. (Which was similar to my original experience with rauchbiers in general, come to think of it.) Highly recommended for anyone who isn't frightened off by smoke aromas and flavors in their beer.
Reviewed by Beginner2 from Illinois
4.15/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
4.15/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
The coincidences are too great and mean something; but I know not what.
Three times in three weeks I get reminded of this really obscure brewing process kept alive by a village in my ancestors' home (my last name is Norwegian.) Curiously, two of the reminders come from a micro-micro brewers in Chicago. The first was two weeks ago in a smoked Saison from Okenoy, a new gastropub here in Chicago but specializing in the Nordic/Baltic kitchen/brewery. The second reminder is an email blast from Todd reminding all BA members of this Norwegian style and an article five years ago from the magazine. https://www.beeradvocate.com/articles/13602/stjordalsol-behind-the-smoke-an-old-beer-style-thrives-in-norway/?utm_campaign=beerthreads&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter
And the third reminder comes from Is/Was in their Wisp creation. I'm starting to appreciate Is/Was' pattern of producing one ale (often a saison) as a normal one and then the same recipe using a smoked malt. They are getting good at this and I want to appreciate it more.
For now, Wisp smoked probably will be a very good saison for select foods at the table. Wisp Looks like a saison with a healthy yeast. (Why Is/Was will go places.) But Wisp wins awards for its initially moderate smoky Smells that become quite modest. Tastes are really a nice peppery, earthy, somewhat fruity, slightly funky saison with a smoky background. Cleansing in the mouth, but modestly so.
I will have Wisp again with summer fare, both the smoked and the straight version. Is/Was is almost always worth a taste from me.
10/3/23 I had Wisp again, and almost with summer fare (French fries.) Other than that partial consistency, I'm less inclined to think that this September '23 release is much of an improvement over the early '21 release I reviewed. It may be that genius never strikes twice, even in repeating a recipe. Nonetheless, Is/Was is a fascinating bulge for brewing to bust its way into the arts and I am glad to have tasted 21 of their brews.
Mar 27, 2021Three times in three weeks I get reminded of this really obscure brewing process kept alive by a village in my ancestors' home (my last name is Norwegian.) Curiously, two of the reminders come from a micro-micro brewers in Chicago. The first was two weeks ago in a smoked Saison from Okenoy, a new gastropub here in Chicago but specializing in the Nordic/Baltic kitchen/brewery. The second reminder is an email blast from Todd reminding all BA members of this Norwegian style and an article five years ago from the magazine. https://www.beeradvocate.com/articles/13602/stjordalsol-behind-the-smoke-an-old-beer-style-thrives-in-norway/?utm_campaign=beerthreads&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter
And the third reminder comes from Is/Was in their Wisp creation. I'm starting to appreciate Is/Was' pattern of producing one ale (often a saison) as a normal one and then the same recipe using a smoked malt. They are getting good at this and I want to appreciate it more.
For now, Wisp smoked probably will be a very good saison for select foods at the table. Wisp Looks like a saison with a healthy yeast. (Why Is/Was will go places.) But Wisp wins awards for its initially moderate smoky Smells that become quite modest. Tastes are really a nice peppery, earthy, somewhat fruity, slightly funky saison with a smoky background. Cleansing in the mouth, but modestly so.
I will have Wisp again with summer fare, both the smoked and the straight version. Is/Was is almost always worth a taste from me.
10/3/23 I had Wisp again, and almost with summer fare (French fries.) Other than that partial consistency, I'm less inclined to think that this September '23 release is much of an improvement over the early '21 release I reviewed. It may be that genius never strikes twice, even in repeating a recipe. Nonetheless, Is/Was is a fascinating bulge for brewing to bust its way into the arts and I am glad to have tasted 21 of their brews.
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