Summertime Chi
Funkytown Brewery

 

 

 

Foggy pastel yellow, ample foam and intricate lacing around the sides of the glass.

Smells like sulfur and coriander, not the most pleasant.

Taste is wheaty with the requisite coriander and orange. Creamy feel with some astringency that is harsh. Well carbed, light bodied. It’s a textbook wit that has some room for improvement.

2024: Bright and clear, tastes like cooked vegetables (DMS). Not good.

16 oz can into a tulip. Slightly hazy pale yellow color with a frothy white head that lingered for a bit, sustained by a steady stream of bubbles from the bottom. Standard wit aroma of cloves, coriander, and orange, but with some doughy malt as well. Taste follows, but the doughy malt tends to overwhelm the wit spice and gives it a certain heaviness that is a little at odds with this brew aspiring to be a summer crusher. Flavor is solid, not over-spiced like so many of the style. With a little tweaking this could become a solid summer wit.

I'm really liking how these college-buddy home-brewers have grown quickly into very fast-learners. The Belgian tradition is not easy for North American crafters to learn. Summertime is only my second Belgo from Funkytown, but both respect the tradition and show better-than-good interpretations. So, I'm impressed and give Funkytown appropriately Big Hugs. But their sophistication at an infant age may also result from the mentoring of the Pilot Project, a well-orchestrated incubator.

Summertime Chi passed its first test: it paired well with my world-famous ratatouille and summer fare. Chi Looks above average. It Smells that way also, not making mistakes of using too much coriander or citrus to cover the experiment's flaws. (Chi has few.) Tastes are balanced, but also not a "Wow." In my mouth, this is quite soft; hard to make your first wheat ale this soft... again, I suspect, Pilot Project's mentoring is at work.

I bought this copy from Beermiscuous, but I need to get to Pilot Project to make sure I get at least a 4-pack. A Votre Sante, Bros !

6/6/22 I went to the source for a 4-pack, my neighborhood micro-incubator only 4 blocks away. And I bought a 4-pack of another Funkytown venture into the Belgian tradition, Gym Shoe a Pale. I remain impressed by them both for being fast-studies of a difficult tradition and for being hometown adaptations. I drank this with a carry-out sandwich from Pilot Project ( a good enough pairing) and a side-by-side with Funkytown's Belgian Pale, Gym Shoes. Interestingly, the yeast seemed to act appropriately for the two related styles... but different enough to still adhere to the tradition. In other words, the key factor in Belgian brewing (the yeast) seemed consistent. Job well done ! Counting repeats over @ UnTappd.

6/22/22 Had Summertime (brewed by a nano) side-by-side with the wit's classic (brewed under the supervision of monks at St Bernardus.) And while the monks won the contest (always a good judgment, particularly if you want to get to heaven), Summertime (on the looser side of the wit spectrum) could compete. This I did not expect from a nano and indicates how far Funkytown has evolved.