Ithaca Excelsior! White Gold

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Ithaca, New York USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Big thanks to Brigadier for this trade. Effervescent gold pour with a large foamy white head. Aroma has great travel, citrus and dry champagne. Fruity flavor, peachy more than anything else, balanced by an overall dryness. Lemon, clove, and wild yeast creaminess play supporting roles. Worty wheat character comes through on the finish. Very active, lightly astringent palate. Excellent Orvallish golden ale, slightly less complex in its fruit character than the original, but very much a pleasure.

750 ml bottle into tulip glass, batch E!015(says copyright 2008 on the bottle). Pours hazy golden amber color with a fairly dense 2-3 finger white head with good retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Some slight spotty lacing on the glass. Aromas of big grape, lemon, apricot, earth, tart apple, herbal, wheat, bread, hay, and funk. Some pretty nice aromas with good strength and balance. Taste of grape, lemon, apricot, apple, herbal, coriander, earth, funk, grass, and hay. Lingering notes of grape, lemon, apricot, grass, hay, and herbal on the finish for a while. A lot of malty flavors with good complexity; and no cloying sweetness. Medium carbonation and body; with a fairly creamy and slick mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with pretty much no warming noticed at all on the finish. Overall this is a damn nice imperial wheat ale. Nice complexity and flavor balance; and extremely smooth to sip on. This has held up well for the age. Really enjoyable stuff.

Batch E!038, tasted 05/04/2012. Pours hazy pale gold, sparking, with a rocky white head, soapy lacing left behind. Lovely aroma: yeasty honey-like musk with an earthy mineral edge, lemon wheat and white grapes, soft herbal hops. Taste of wheat malts, herbal earthiness with fruity citrus overtones, yeast, and bitter dry finish. Thin body, but lovely carbonation fills the mouth. Nice, one of my favorites.

Bottle. Milky yellow. Cap. Brett funk aroma, minerals. Dry, but I just had a miracle fruit!! So it tastes now like skinless plum.. Soft, really balanced and tasty with nutty malt profile. Nice. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Bottle: Poured a dirty pale yellow color ale with a super huge foamy head with perfect retention and loads of lacing. Aroma consists of Brett and light sour notes with light dry floral ester. Taste is a complex mix between some nice wheat malt with loads of floral notes and some sour and light funky yeast from the Brett yeast strain. Body is quite full with great carbonation and no apparent alcohol. This really hits a bunch of stuff I like in beers, i.e. wheat malt, dry hoppy notes and Brett. I would love to have access tot his on a regular basis.

beautiful flavor of aromatic pine and skunk hemp. not much of that in the aroma perhaps some straw and pine. perhaps a hint of vanilla in vibrant foam and caustic carbonation. i thought the hemp finish lingered a bit.

Bottle @ hotel room, Ithaca. Hazy, glowing orange appearance with a nice, off-white head that has pretty good lacing. Spicy, grapefruit, citrus hoppy, wheat malty, a touch grassy aroma. Big grapefruit hoppy, tangy citrusy, spicy, dry belgian yeasty, wheat malty flavor with a fairly dry finish. Pretty nice brew.

3/4/12. 750mL bottle via cbfobes! Hazy light orange, almost golden, pour with a GIANT barely off-white head that sticks forever - pour more carefully than you think you need. Slightly funky, spicy Belgian yeast aromatics with tart lemon peel and touches of light sugars. Nice flavor with tart citrus, bits of phenolic spices, more tartness (not overtly sour, mind you, moreso funky) with lemon peel and more. Tasty!

Batch E!031- pours opaque golden, lots of carbonation. huge, fluffy white head with sticky lacing. lemon zest, orange peel,coriander, hay, herbal notes on the nose. effervescent body. grassy, lemon tartness on the palate. Dry and nuanced. Sneaky drinkable and clean.

Pours a hazy orangish hue with minimal lacing. Aroma is creamcycle, orange and lemon (saaz).

750. Pours a hazy apricot with a pretty big fizzy/fluffy head. Aromas are interesting at first, but fade a bit right after popping the cap. At first I thought this was going to be a huge bretty barnyard dealie. After that cleared, a little lemon, but mostly pears and honey and a little mustiness. Flavor is kinda washed out like that... like it wants to be more assertive, but just didn’t get there. It’s good enough, but I was expecting this to be much more interesting.