Honeyed Dim-Wit

I have written previously about my love for both Belgian-style ales and the use of honey as an adjunct (or even as the sole source of fermentable sugars. Mmmm... mead). Yesterday, I drank the last glass from a thoroughly enjoyable keg of Honey-Wit. For those of you who don't know, wit beers are typically produced using 50% pilsner grain and 50% raw wheat for the mash. It is a dry, easy drinking style with a tart, spicy finish and a pale, opaque appearance that many people would call white - hence the moniker; "wit". Probably the most famous commercial wits would be Hoegaarden Wit and Celis White - although you don't seem to find many Celis White bottles on the shelf of the local bottlo.

At any rate, my latest wit proved to be another of those classic "flavour evolution" brews - meaning that the taste changed dramatically over the months it was on tap. It started as you would imagine many wits would - spicy and slightly phenolic with a fairly strong sense of both citrus and coriander. Vanilla undertones almost - but not quite - masked a nice tartness in the finish. The marvellous spicy aroma was mostly derived from the coriander and raw wheat, and the colour was a lovely opaque straw. Over the months the cloudiness dissipated and the beer became as bright as any lager. The flavour became somewhat subdued as well, with the aftertaste created by the honey becoming quite dominant. The other dominant flavour that persisted right up to the final glass was the phenolic spiciness, although by this stage any flavour from the orange and coriander had gone the way of the dodo.

All in all I was quite pleased with this brew, and would be happy to try it again someday – but with all the batches I have running through the back of my mind, I am certain it will be a long time before this one sees the inside of the boiler again.

One point to note:- I split this batch into two seperate fermenters, one of which travelled the forty kilometer trip to my fathers house after brew day. While mine turned out quite well, my fathers ended up infected. Now he did describe it to me over the phone as being "cloudy white - almost like Baileys [Irish Cream]"; to which I naturally answered "It's a wit... it's supposed to be cloudy and white." Taking my advice, he chilled and carbonated it and awaited my eventual arrival at his house for a Sunday BBQ. When I got there he poured me a pony-sized serve and smugly handed it over. There within the glass was something I had never seen before. The bottom half was a highly effervescent, crystal clear water-coloured liquid. Floating above this was a thick, creamy like substance that, from a distance looked like a good head, but close up resembled curdled milk. A tentative sip (of the clear liquid underneath) revealed a taste somewhat similar to lemonade - I didn't even try to taste the curdled-milk-head. Needless to say, his half of the batch became lawn-food.

Quack,

TSD