Allagash White

Bottle. Haystack yellow with a thin head. Banana, cloves and lemon aroma. Flavor was light, bright and lemony with a crispness. Solid Wit.

Bottle from Whole Foods Charlottesville. Pours a pale straw yellow with a small head. Good lacing. Sweet wheat fruity aroma. Taste is wheat, yeast, sweat and a subtle spice I really had to search for.

Bottle from Capitol Convenience in Concord. Pours light yellow, and cloudy. Thick foamy white crown that hangs on. Aroma is very yeasty, thick bread crust, with pale fruit and a bit of baking spice. Taste is clean, but surprisingly smooth and weighty for a beer of this type. Yeast is visible in the glass. Bread is very palpable in flavor, along with butter, spice, and...what? A sort of sparkling wine feel too. Overall, quite good.

Yellow bodied, white head. Aromas of banana, citrus, and bubblegum. Flavor is much the same as the aroma, with detectable spicing. Thin bodied and somewhat watered down.

Bottle. Pours a pale hue of orange with a pretty bright white head. Yeasty scents abound with a slight champagne grape scent towards the end. Banana flavors with slight nutmeg aftertaste. Sparking mouthfeel. This is an above average Belgian white. Summer is in this bottle.

12oz. bottle. Pours a light gold with a slight haze and highlights of yellow/straw. The head pours medium in thickness and white in color. The aroma is very strong with citrus peel and with the spicy/citrusy smell of coriander. Notes of wheat and a very subtle note of sweetness also show up in the aroma. The flavor starts crisp, light, and dry with spice, a very subtle sweet maltiness, and a good bit of unmalted grain. As the beer nears mid-palate, the spice and orange zest strengthen. There is a nice interplay of coriander, wheat, and hop bitterness at the apex, leading to a crisp, dry, spicy, lemon oil finish. The mouthfeel is full and creamy - considering how light the beer’s flavor, the body is quite nice (must be from the use of oats). Overall, a decent white beer, but the spice character is almost too prominent - more malted wheat character and more citrus would have been nice, too.

Sampled at the Brickskeller’s Lupulin Reunulin event with head brewer Rob Tod in attendance. Pours a cloudy, yellow white with a thin white head. Aroma is wheaty, zesty, with bananas and cloves. Very inviting look and smell. Flavor is similar, plenty of spice, cloves, banana, vanilla and maybe some powdered sugar. Finish is clean and a little chalky. Simple, fresh, drinkable session beer. Well crafted.

12oz bottle shared thanks to zinister. Pours a hazy, cloudy yellow with thin white head. This had a smell of spicy wheat and yeast. Taste was lemony yeast and spices. Mouthfeel was medium with a dry finish. Better than some other witbiers I’ve had.