Ithaca Excelsior! White Gold

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

Pours hazy yellow with a nice white head. Smell is sour, vinegar. Flavor is tart, more vinegar, and it tastes like a soured hefeweizen. I was unimpressed.

750mL thanks to Secret Santa! Into a weizen. Pours a very hazy yellow with some big brown chunks of yeast. Huge billowing white head that looks like ice cream in the glass. Really a beauty. Aroma is straight up champagne. Woah. Lemony tartness, white wine. Taste is a bit vinegary, not so tart, somewhat bland. I think the idea of this beer is sound, there are tons of complexities. But the end result seems to be a slightly soured hefeweizen.

Bottle purchased at Rozi’s in Lakewood. The aroma is this soft pillow of wheat and yeast, simple sugart notes and light musky grassy aromas. This has such a simple relaxed aroma I can’t stop enjoying how interesting it is in the simplicity and depth. The look of it is rather nice as well, hold it up to a light and it glows a simple soft yellow. This tastes more like a cross between a farmhouse and a wit. It has the best characteristic of both, without pushing itself into the big strong ale category.

Bottle. 25.4 oz. Split with Braden over a great meal. Pours honey golden with a moderate, slowly dissipating white head. Aroma of wheat, honey, barley, citrus, and spice. Medium bodied with an extremely clean, fizzy mouthfeel. Quick finish, Very good. Listed as a Belgian Strong, but definitely closer to a witbier.

Tart and lemon in both aroma and taste. I was a bit turned off at first by the "wheat" on the label...but this is no wheat beer. Very spicy and light. Zesty indeed. Tasty. Some hint of sour.

Bottle: E!0012, Poured a cloudy golden with a white head. The aroma was wheat, lemon, corriander and malts. The flavor was malty, lemons, funky, apples, and a hint of hops. Overall, this is quite an interesting beer, all for the better.

From a 750ml into a snifter. Pours with a TON of bubbly white head which dissipates in a few minutes to nothing at all. Smell is of lemons and yeast. Taste is of lemons, yeast, alcohol and fiz. It’s got some bite to it for sure. A damn fine combination of flavors which really go well with the carbonation of the beer. It’s a little too carbonated if you don’t pour with a little vigour... but take my warning, don’t pour with too much vigor or it will go flat. A beer that I’d happily drink again. Now for the bad. There was some crap on the cap of the beer and under the white plastic holding the cap on. It looks as if it were rust. I don’t know whether Ithaca didn’t clean off the excess beer that overflowed during bottling or whether the cap was defective/not put on correctly, but rust shouldn’t happen.

Bottle pour.Yellow/Orange color with a good head.Yeasty bread aroma with some spice and fruit hints.Flavor was spice,yeast, and wheat with fruity/citrus undertone.Really good.