Ithaca White Gold

Light lemon aroma and moderate grainy yeast. Hazy golden color with a large white head. Very sweet taste throughout.

(Batch #1, rel. 4/07, Bottle #1374, failed to note who to thanks) Medium off-white head atop cloudy apple cider body. Aroma is medium sweet, wheat, some lemon. Taste is medium sweet, wheat, lemon, floral, light clove. Smooth medium body, some creaminess.

Pours gold into a Tumbler. Bright white micro head with excellent retention. Saaz aromas. Crisp and full with biscuit and a lasting hop finish.

Pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a frothy, initially three-finger thick, light tan colored head. The beer is an amber hue that shows an orangish, copper tint when held up to the light. The aroma has a characteristically, expressive, spicy clove note to it, plus a nice grassy grain note, some crushed malt aromatics and a soft fruitiness made up of faint berry notes and a touch of green apple. There even seems to be a slight butter-like component here that is very faint, but somehow doesn’t seem to be diacetyl.

Quite light bodied with a fizzy, well carbonated texture. The beer tastes most noticeably of spicy clove throughout the flavor profile; the clove phenols even manage to provide a touch of a bite to the finish along with a hop bitterness. The malt somehow seems a bit tired; grassy grain flavors, muddy bread flavors and a bright wheat tartness provide the bulk of the balance to the clove spiciness. The beer can seem a bit thin at times for a Hefeweizen; one usually expects a certain creamy, malt driven texture from the best examples of the style, which this seems to be lacking.

Not a bad beer, just not the world class Hefeweizen I was hoping for. Without a bottle date I am not sure how old this is, but I’ll definitely be on the look out for fresher bottles of this.

Batch #E!005 Appearance: Big fluffy wheat head, pure white. Gorgeous golden color that’s only slightly hazy. Aroma: Floral hops, belgian yeastiness.. standard tripellish aroma: Fruity, hint of sour apple. Flavor: Initial bitter tang. Followed by what seems a mix of a good, belgian golden ale and a wheat ael that’s almost approaching a steam ale in some of it’s hop/malt mixture subleties. And a bit like apfelwein. Very clean, palatable, dry as hell but let’s loose a solid flavor on the tongue. Very mellow for so much flavor. This is a great drinking beer. Mouthfeel: fully carbed, and "bone dry" as mentioned. Overall: Excellent wheat beer. An american wheat mixed with a belgian golden/tripel. Very pleasant combination for sure.