St. Bernardus Blanche (Witbier)

Cloudy with a slightly apricot, golden color. Slight sourness in the smell and the taste. Some sweetness, coorinador, and fruits. Easy to drink.

Serve Cold. St Bernardus’ Witbier has a wonderful fruity aroma. It looks like liquid gold sparkling in a tumbler. For as bubbly as it is, one would expect a sharp bite, but to your surprise you get a complex sweet-bitter finish. Perfect after mowing your yard in the summertime.

On tap at The Red in Santa Cruz. Peachy lemon in color with a big white head that leaves fantastic Belgian lacing. The foam never seems to die down to the liquid. Aroma is spicy and citrusy: coriander and lemon respectively. Classic. Flavor is pretty much unrivaled in the witbier world. Not a touch of wateriness yet still so refreshing. Tangy lemon with a sweet wheat maltiness, accented by coriander and clove. Mouthfeel is unreally smooth from the wheat. A bit too full-flavored to be supremely drinkable like some of the lighter versions of the style out there, but this is quite easily the best as far as overall quality. That Hoegaarden has the same average score on this site is a travesty.

33cl bottle from Total Wine Tampa. Pours golden lemony, cloudy, thin white head. Smells of lemon, citrus, spice, but not overpoweringly so. Flavor: citrus, spice, faint complex cheese taste with a slightly watery finish.

Pours slightly orangy yellow, very cloudy with a long-lasting white head. Man, there’s tons of obscene chunks floating in this. Aroma is pungent, leaning towards the doughier and earthier side of witbiers. A bit of lemon zest, cardamom, hay, salt...mostly pungent yeast notes. Tangy at first with tart citrus and light herb/spice, this gets overtaken with a raw dough and wheat taste, pungent yeasty hay notes throughout. Finishes pretty clean, but the aftertaste changes things up and removes almost all tartness, leaving nothing but gingery dough, and maybe sugar cookies. Okay, maybe it’s not THAT sweet, but still.....Light highly carbonated mouthfeel, but this is definitely chewier than most witbiers. Not quite as big as de Rocs Blanche Double. Anyway this is pretty fabulous.

750ml bottle. Not what I was expecting from St. Bernardus. Poured a beautiful golden yellow with nice haze and lacing. Nose was very citric and tart, as was the finish. I should have let this brew sit a bit longer.

St. Bernardus Blanche is a fantastic Belgian White. The color is a very hazy yellow with a nice creamy white head. The flavor is full of orange and corriander and is very smooth going down.

Big 750 ml bottle at Rob and Beki’s in Pace, Florida. Thanks, Rob! Pours cloudy and yellow, almost white in color. Smells of yeast and slightly of tart apple. Tastes tart, lemony and slightly spicey. A very fine example of the style.