Mendocino Summer Ale

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: Belgian White (Witbier)
Hopland, California USA

(Bottle courtesy of Headbanger) Aroma is a vinyl and citrus scent. Color is a solid hazy yellow with good carbonation and a tight head. Taste is sour and citrusy. Starting with a medium body it goes down with a sour twinge biting at the sides of your tongue. Finish is a lemon flavor backed by a far sour taste and a wheat flavor. In the after taste the sour lingers a bite. Not a bad white, its not perfect but it is very interesting.

Summer Seasonal White Ale 12oz bottle that pours up hazy white-ish straw with thin white head. The aroma is lemon, un-ripe orange peel, hay, wheat, bubble gum, spices and some green and red apples. The taste is bold and yet refreshing. Nice summer product. I get lemon that combines with sweetness from malts and a bit of wheat. The sweetness quickly fades leaving lemon tartness, orange peel tartness and tangelo tart hard candy tartness. Tart but refreshing. It then smooths out with faint bubble gum, some hay, spice, a bit of sweetness and receding levels of tartness into the finish.

Pours a very, very light yellow, near white in color. Very cloudy and murky. Smell is all skunk and spice. Taste is very spicy. Way too much coriander, and I mean WAY too much. Mouthfeel is very good. Velvety smooth on the front, then a nice bite from the spice on the finish. Pretty interesting style.

Bottle. Aroma of citrus, wheat and mild spice. Hazy gold color with no significant head. Perhaps a touch of anise. Less than medium in body with fizzy carbonation that turns soft. It’s citrus/coriander, wheat and not much spice at all. Pleasant, but not so flavorful as most European wits. As time passes, it seems flavors develop, and it turns very tasty.

Bottle, very hazy lemon and slight orange color. Nose is ok, standard orange peel and citrus (lemon). Good wit, tasted like a French represenation of the style - reminded me of Amadeus Biere Blanche.

12 oz bottle from Stateline Liquors MD/DE. Pours a very cloudy light yellow body with small white head. Nose is orange and lemon peel but also something slightly offensive. The taste is really good, great representation of the style.
Earlier Rating: 6/24/2007 Total Score: 4
12 oz bottle. Great belgian wit to enjoy on a nice hot summer day. Taste of orange and lemon, with some hops as well. Could see the yeast floating around inside the bottle.

A very so so wit. I love this style but there is something that set this beer apart from all the other wits I’ve ever had. The aroma of HOT DOGS. Yes, hot dogs. Pour was a nice light cloudy gold with a 2 finger white head. Taste was frankfurter-y with a hint of sourness and a dry lemony aftertaste. The hot dogs were too much to overcome. Blah.

Beautiful cloudy lemon-colored pour with a fluffy and lasting white head. Lemony aroma with some coriander. Taste is very light citrus with some spiciness throughout. Creamy mouthfeel, light carbonation. All of the flavors are rather muted but this is one tasty summer brew. It’s not a Hoegaarden but it’s it is pretty freaking good. I think I’m going to try and culture this yeast for home.
Earlier Rating: 5/14/2006 Total Score: 3.3
Very cloudy light orange pour with a very thin white head. Spice, corriander and a slight vegatable aroma. Taste is mostly citrus, lemon and orange zest, banana, clove. Nicely carbonated although slightly thin and watery. Good summer beer but could be more agressive.