Can you believe St. Bernardus Wit is the first beer from St. Bernardus Brewery that The Brew Club is reviewing? (Or Brouwerij in Belgian)
I’ve actually had this witbier in my fridge for awhile, but considering its about 100 degrees outside as I write this, I thought it would make for a good beer review while (hopefully) providing a little refreshment for yours truly.
Checking out the ‘brouwerij’ website, it seems that the 5.5% ABV Wit was “developed in cooperation with Master Brewer Pierre Celis, the Godfather of Hoegaarden and Celis White.” Now, I don’t know about this Celis White stuff, but most of us have heard of Hoegaarden, whose name is arguably synonymous with this beer style.
This beer pours a very hazy, golden straw color. Its certainly got a lot of yeast particles floating around as you can not see through the beer at all. The head is a pure white foamy affair, but its much smaller than I expected considering the huge frothy thing that my last bottle of Hoegaarden produced. The head fizzled out rather quickly, and once it did there was no lacing to speak of.
Well, if the head was a bit unimpressive, the aroma surely made up for it! Giving this Wit a whiff, its got all of your expected characters; orangy citrus, spicy coriander, wheat and malt mixed into a nice bouquet that any nose would appreciate. Well, I suppose the nose doesn’t appreciate it so much as the scent receptors within you nose, but you know what I mean. Right?
The taste. Well, its been awhile since I’ve had a foreign Witbier, and this one is quite different than what I’ve grown accustomed to in the domestic Belgian White. The first thing that really stands out for me was the pop of citrus flavors. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it tasted like orange juice (it does not), but the orange flavors were much more pronounced than in the domestics I’ve recently tried.
It was a little sour even, which I found enjoyable actually. The coriander and probably other spices were in there as expected, but they seem to play a backup role to the citrus here. Additionally, you taste some of the customary wheat flavors. Overall, I really enjoyed the balance between the tartness, spiciness, and bitterness of this brew. Very good flavors here.
Where next? Well, the St. Bernardus Wit has a nice clean, crisp feel to it, and despite the lack of a decent head from my bottle, I found the carbonation to be good enough to make the beer feel lively in the mouth. Very enjoyable and very drinkable indeed.
So, what do I think of the Wit with the goofy Monk on the label? Well, I think its an excellent Witbier and I’m glad I got to try it. (Thanks to Brew Clubber Neil for the good pick!) I generally like this beer style. I find Belgian White beers to be relatively light and usually very refreshing – this beer exceeded that expectation. I’m hesitant to say it, but of all the Belgian Wit beers I’ve had, (I’ve had a few) I think this may be the best of them.
We wrote recently about the ongoing battle to brew the world’s strongest beer between Scottish brewers Brewdog and Schorschbrau in Germany.
And more recently, at the 2010 IBC Awards I was lucky enough to taste Sam Adams Utopia.
Well today Brewdog announced ‘The End of History” which sounds like it should be a Doctor Who episode, but which they have declared is their last installment in their “efforts to redefine the limits of contemporary brewing.”
They don’t describe the method of production, but I suspect this must be another eisbock. They describe it as a “blond Belgian ale infused with nettles from the Scottish Highlands and Fresh juniper berries.” It’s brewed to an eye watering 55% ABV and only 12 bottles are being made of which 11 are for sale.
This is where it gets even more bizarre, each bottle is encased in a stuffed animal!
Seven are being sold ‘wrapped’ in stoats, and four in grey squirrel carcasses, all roadkill (no rodents have been harmed in the packaging of this brew) and each comes with a certificate of authenticity. The ’stoats’ are priced at £500 ($760) a bottle, the grey squirrels at £700 ($1070).
Needless to say, at those prices I’ll pass, and on this occasion I’ll decline to comment.
But I look forward to hearing your views, and if you’re so interested, here’s the Brewdog video on the subject.
I was reading someplace that Bar Harbor Brewing Company had sent President Obama some of their beers to try, but they never made it past the gates of the White House!
Turns out that food-like gifts are just verboten, but I wonder if they had someone tasting the beers first. Why? Because if I were the White House beer tester, I don’t think I’d let the Thunder Hole Ale past the gates either!
Let me explain.
Thunder Hole Ale is a 4.8% ABV brown ale. According to the Bar Harbor Brewing website, this beer is “Delicious. Full-bodied. Complex…This is the brown ale that beat Newcastle, Sam Adams and more, at the World Beer Championships in Chicago. “
Furthermore, we learn that Charlie Papazian himself said that the Thunder Hole Ale is “An American classic brewed perfectly.” Perhaps this is my hint to get out of beer reviews, because I didn’t get ANY of that with this beer!
It looks nice enough in the glass – a nice deep amber color, almost red really, and the aroma is OK I guess. Malty for sure, but to me not much really going on here otherwise. The head is rather lively and is a nice beige color and there is some good lacing going on. Strangely, this beer’s head reminds me of the head that my Pepsi Max creates! Fizzy indeed.
This beer really loses me on the taste. Again, I’ll make a soda analogy. Ever get a self-serve cola that didn’t have enough soda stuff mixed with the carbonated water? Well, that’s what I got here.
The flavors were not pronounced at all. There was an essence of malt, but I really got bitter and metallic flavors. The mouthfeel was also soda-like. Very much on the thin side. The only redeeming quality in my mind was the aftertaste where, after some time, I could pick up some roasted malt and perhaps some coffee flavors but I’m not much into delayed gratification when it comes to my beers!
This beer really has me scratching my head. I mean, how does a guy like Charlie Papazian say this is ‘an American classic brewed perfectly’ and I get beer-flavored seltzer water? Still, being better than Newcastle Brown Ale isn’t much of a feat I think, and I’m not exactly sure what Sam Adams beer this brew from Bar Harbor Brewing topped in Chicago. Maybe brown ales are generally sucky?
Well, there’s a couple of explanations I can think of. The first is that this beer was treated horribly by my friend Melissa who always brings back beer samples for me from her vacation destination. Perhaps Melissa was on a sunny beach and left this bottle to become putrid in the Maine sun? Well Melissa? I’m kidding here, (not) but maybe I just have a bad bottle. The other explanation is that my beer tasting abilities are so far off that perhaps I should put my keyboard away and go back to knitting little hats for newborns.
I just don’t know. Its been a long time since I was so disappointed in a craft beer, but I guess its to be expected now and then. President Obama it seems, didn’t miss much, but I’m hoping that their bottle of Cadillac Mountain Stout I have makes up for it!
As well as ‘the usual subjects’ – beers from the UK and USA, there were a considerable number of beers from Australia and Italy, and other brews from as far away as El Salvador.
The Italian brews were particularly interesting – brewing in Italy is coming up with some exciting beers… keep an eye out for beers from “Birra Toccalmatto” , “Birrificio Turbacci”, “Birrificio Cittavecchia”and “Birrificio Del Ducato” all of whom won medals.
It’s probably worth noting that the following trophies were awarded :
Best Low Alcohol Beer – Bill Brewer from Harvey and Son (2nd year running) Best Ale – Highlander from Fyne Ales (Scotland – 2nd year running) Best Stout or Porter – Vital Spark from Fyne Ales (Scotland) Best Wheat Beer – Weihenstephan Hefe Weissbier (Germany – 2nd year running) Best Lager – Sam Adams Noble Pils (USA) Best Specialty – Sam Adams Utopia 2009 Supreme Champion – Sam Adams Utopia 2009.
While I was there I also managed to get a photograph of me with the lone ‘bottle’ of 2009 Utopia on display… which I subsequently sampled and reveled in its rich, warm, almost Cognac or Armagnac flavours. Having experimented with some of the super strength beer recently, this was a true revelation and a worthy Supremem Champion. I think that, in a blind tasting, I’d have identified it as a brandy, rather than anything made with mere malt and hops.
I also managed to grab a drink with Pete Brown, who recently wrote one of the best articles on the state of British Brewing that I’ve read for a very long time. Pete conceded that his article had been ’simmering’ for quite a while.
I also caught up with Steve Williams – the ‘Official London Beer Taster’ – whom I barely recognised in a sensible shirt!
Steve and I agreed to meet up in a few weeks for a quiet beer, or two. Needless to say, I’ll keep The Brew Club informed!
After recently trying (and loving) the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, dawned on me that these guys make good beer! Granted, I haven’t tried everything they make yet, but what I have tried like their Stout has been really good. I wasn’t crazy about their Summerfest beer, but that was a long time ago and I should probably revisit that beer anyway.
So, when I was cruising the beer isle in search of the perfect beer for this week’s beer exchange with the rest of The Brew Club crew, it made a lot of sense that I grabbed the Sierra Nevada Kellerweis.
Its good logic really. I was looking for something I hadn’t tried before, something that would likely be a good beer, and something nice for Summer. Sierra Nevada Kellerweis seemed to fit the bill – so let’s crack it open and see what happens!
Kellerweis is a Hefeweisen, which is a wheat beer that typically features nice banana and clove flavors, although there are no bananas that are actually harmed in the making of these beers. The banana flavor is a result of the type of yeast used I think – but anyway its a nice beer style perfectly suited for summertime refreshment. I don’t know how common it is, but Sierra Nevada claims that this beer is one of a few American Hefeweizens that is made using a ‘traitional Bavarian-style of open fermentation.” Anybody want to comment on that?
This beer pours a very nice golden color, and it was very hazy with suspended yeast particles floating about. It created a nice white head that produced a good bit of lacing on my glass.
The aroma was in a way typical of a Hefeweizen – spices, in this case clove is pretty easy to pick up, and sure enough banana-like aromas back it up nicely. Overlay that on wheat and you know what it smells like!
Kellerweis tasted great! Granted, I haven’t tried a lot of domestic hefeweizens yet, but this one is just wonderful right off the bat. Like the aroma, and not surprisingly I suppose, spicy flavors of clove come to the front along with that classic banana flavor. There’s a bit of a grainy flavor too, which at the moment I can only attribute to the wheat? I’m not going to overdo it here because to me this beer’s flavor is fairly simple and straightforward – and it works.
This hefe had a great mouthfeel too. While its not watery, its thin enough not to feel stick or heavy – perfect for a hot summer day. The bottle mentions that this beer has a ‘velvety smooth texture’ and I’m inclined to agree at this point.
Overall, if you couldn’t tell, I was mightily impressed by the Sierra Nevada Kellerweis! I think this 4.8% ABV brew out of California is a great rendition of the hefeweizen style, and I suppose that open-fermentation thing does make a difference. I’ll be getting it again for sure before the Summer is over, but I’m also happy that its available year-round.
Rating:
If you’re a hefe fan, you owe it to yourself to give this one a try.
July 30, 2010 
I’ve actually had this witbier in my fridge for awhile, but considering its about 100 degrees outside as I write this, I thought it would make for a good beer review while (hopefully) providing a little refreshment for yours truly.
despite the lack of a decent head from my bottle, I found the carbonation to be good enough to make the beer feel lively in the mouth. Very enjoyable and very drinkable indeed.
Posted in 4 Star Reviews, Ales, Belgian Beers, Wheat Beers 
4 Comments » 
Charlie Papazian say this is ‘an American classic brewed perfectly’ and I get beer-flavored seltzer water? Still, being better than Newcastle Brown Ale isn’t much of a feat I think, and I’m not exactly sure what Sam Adams beer this brew from Bar Harbor Brewing topped in Chicago. Maybe brown ales are generally sucky?
to feel stick or heavy – perfect for a hot summer day. The bottle mentions that this beer has a ‘velvety smooth texture’ and I’m inclined to agree at this point.
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