Wonka's Wit - Tangerine Vanilla Bean
Block 15 Brewing - Southtown Tap Room

Bottle Date: June 2020
Palate Contaminants: pesto pasta

Moderate opaqueness and light orange juice color. The head is medium-coarse and goes away quickly, with not even the slightest bit of lacing.

Very acidic citrus smell, which is indeed tangerine. It took awhile for me to detect sweetness, but it's there. Any vanilla is faint. I wish I could say more, but nothing else volatilizes.

It tastes like Orangina. I really struggle for anything else, although I can pick out something that's half-way between malted wheat and vanilla. It's not that I don't like Orangina, but let's leave it at that I was expecting a bit more. If I had kids, it's entirely possible that they could consume right in front of me, and I'd have no idea it was an adult beverage. Anyways, moderate sweetness and light-moderate bitterness, to round out the taste description. (I should note that very light brett funk does show as it warms.)

It's probably the most acidic brew I've ever had. Carbonation is coarse. I suppose one good thing is that alcohol is completely undetectable, right?

I mean, it's fine for a beverage that's not in the potent potables class.

really neat beer, mature wild wit base with vanilla and tangerine, a cool combination. this funky stuff is what these guys do best, and as much as i was stoked to blast through some cans of their lagers and hoppy beers, this is where they really stand out for me, and i was pumped to drink this one. super orange in color, oddly, almost unnaturally so, rather dense looking too for something low alcohol that is generally delicate, and very little head here, despite it having enough carbonation in the actual mouthfeel. strong nose of sweet vanilla and piquant citrus, an almost candied vibe to the tangerine because of all the vanilla, very natural but also very robust, more than tart too, but not overly acidic, plenty of funk in the mix as well, not quite recognizable as a conventional wit base, but i dont mind. the flavor is awesome, more tangerine now than i could smell at first, some belgian spicy esters that work nicely with the fruitiness and the tartness. oak forward and also vinous to me, the beer seems long aged, the label says there is some two years old beer in the blend, and i get that for sure. bretty as it warms but also increasingly sour, very vanilla heavy in a new school way, but its real enough to not seem overdone to me, bold as it is. a little weak on the intangibles, the texture is a little heavy for the style and the lack of head is not right either. its a bit flavored at the expense of the base beer, but the fermentation profile is awesome and still fully appreciable here. a curious little brew, a fun one to share, definitely hoping to try some other variants of it!