Winning the battle of wits

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/04/2016 (3428 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Back in early 2004, I was still a big fan of your typical Canadian pale lagers/pilsners such as Canadian, Kokanee and Moosehead — and frankly, I enjoyed them a lot.

However, there was a part of me that wanted to try something new. Up came witbiers!

You’ve seen me talk about witbiers here fairly often as it’s a fairly light, flavourful style wheat beer that’s not offensive to any beer drinker’s palate. To me, a good witbier is the perfect beverage to cheer me up after a bad day — which is often lately.

While the witbier originated in Belgium more than 500 years ago, the style faded in the 1950s in Belgium with the rise in popularity of lagers. In the 1980s, the style returned to popularity and to this day, almost every brewery has experimented with at least one witbier.

Both Fort Garry and Half Pints released their takes on the Belgian witbier this past summer and of the two, Fort Garry’s won it for me because Half Pints simply filtered their beer too much, removing the sweet, yeasty, orange peel and coriandery treat that goes amazingly with patios.

Also, if you’ve ever had a German-style hefeweizen, it’s a cousin of the Belgian witbier. With the witbier, you get more of an orange or orange peel flavour, while the German hefeweizen has a creamier, banana flavour.

Here are four witbiers I’ve chosen in time for Patio Season 2016 … weather permitting!

• Hoegaarden (AB InBev Labatt) — Hoegaarden is widely known as being one of the “original” witbiers in North America, with a Belgian history dating back to 1445. In reality, the beer was introduced in the 1960s and purchased by the AB InBev predecessors at Interbrew in the 1980s, bringing distribution to Canada.

Hoegaarden pours a fairly light, hazy lemon-yellow body. The aroma starts off with notes of vinegar, which is never a good thing, but it quickly diminishes into a light herbal and vegetal perfume aroma with a hint of coriander.

The taste is fairly bland, a bit acidic and mostly the taste of yeast. I’m not noticing much of the coriander, but it’s there somewhere. Hoegaarden leaves a bit of a metallic aftertaste. If you’re ever in Belgium, there’s a thousand better witbiers than this.

4.9 per cent ABV. Available for $2.48/330ml bottle at nearly every Liquor Mart (including Express locations) in Manitoba.

» Rating: 2/5 Pints

• Unibroue Blanche de Chambly (Sleeman Sapporo) — In 1991, Blanche de Chambly became the first commercially brewed witbier in North America. Since then, the beer has become a staple of the Canadian beer industry. Being a big fanboy of Unibroue, I was lucky enough to get a private tour of the brewery back in January — so there is some substantial bias here.

Blanche de Chambly pours a carbonated, cloudy orange peel with a minimal amount of snow white head on the side of the glass. The aroma is a mixture of wheat-based cereals and biscuits, a hint of orange peel and just a faint note of coriander.

The taste gives off a more moderate flavour of coriander with a hint of clove, biscuits, a smidge of orange peel and a hint of lemon. A very light sour aftertaste is present. The presence of coriander isn’t what I remember from batches of the beer from back when I worked at Convergys, but this is a nice easy drinking wheat beer and great for making Sunday morning beer mimosas (three parts Chambly, one part orange juice).

5.0 per cent ABV. Available for $6.15/750ml corked bottle at Keystone Motor Inn vendor, Liquor Marts in Brandon, Neepawa and The Pas, as well as on tap at Prairie Firehouse.

» Rating: 3.5/5 Pints

• Charles Henri Blanche (Brasserie Les 2 Frères) — I reviewed this beer a few months back and seeing that Brasserie Les 2 Frères has only been open for two years now, they have aggressively expanded into Western Canada — first here in Manitoba, but now also in Saskatchewan.

Charles Henri pours a hazy orange peel with close to no carbonation, a good deal of sediment floating around in the beer and a light amount of snow white head on top glazing the glass. The aroma gives off an abundance of coriander and clove, which may be too much for some people as that combination is a bit spicy for my nostrils. But it still gives off a nice citrus zest that doesn’t need a wedge of orange touched by dirty hands.

The taste is a mixture of vegetal and fruity zest that gives off a bit of green leafy vegetable flavour due to the abundance of coriander and clove. Light to medium amount of pepper spice and a nice amount of orange peel give it a sweet citrus zest. This is the most herbal witbier so far, but also the first beer of the night that has any true presence of coriander and orange peel. However, the leafy green taste makes me wish there was a shot of fresh squeezed OJ in here.

5.1 per cent ABV. Available for $4.99/500ml bottle at the Corral Centre Liquor Mart.

» Rating: 3/5 Pints

• Belgian Moon, a.k.a. Blue Moon (Molson Coors Brewing) — The new kid on the block … but wait … it’s not! If you’ve ever had Rickard’s White, you’ve had a Belgian Moon. Belgian Moon (or Blue Moon, as it is known in the United States) was the original recipe for Rickard’s White when it was released in 2006. Since then, both the Rickard’s and the Blue Moon recipes have been tweaked, making it different enough that both beers can exist at the same time at Liquor Marts and vendors.

But due to the popularity of Labatt/AB InBev’s horrible Shock Top Belgian Wheat wannabe-ale a few years back, Rickard’s White disappeared from restaurant/pub draft lines. Belgian Moon has arrived to combat against Shock Top, or at least that’s what the vibe I got from it stated.

Belgian Moon pours a very cloudy orange that initially has a lot of fizzy carbonation, but it diminishes immediately. There’s a very light amount of white foam residue, but no actual head on top at all — that’s just weird.

The aroma first reminds me of buttered toast — using grandma’s bread, not any of that store-bought stuff. There’s also a rich aroma of orange peel and coriander building up each time I try to smell the beer.

The taste is very grainy, a hint of buttery goodness again — which isn’t physically possible in a Belgian-style witbier in the first place — a light amount of vegetal flavour to it, a hint of coriander popping up here and there and a good presence of orange juice and orange peel emerging whenever it can.

The Rickard’s variety is even sweeter in my opinion, with even more coriander — but that’s what the Canadian market seems to want with their wings. Belgian Moon is actually more subtle than Rickard’s White. If you absolutely need an orange wedge, just add some orange juice to the brew like my Chambly breakfast mimosa idea.

5.4 per cent ABV, available in 473ml cans for $3.01 and 355ml 12-packs throughout Manitoba for $23.68. You will see this beer on tap at various bars and restaurants throughout the province in coming weeks, as nobody should ever have to deal with the mediocrity of Labatt’s Shock Top.

» Rating: 3.5/5 Pints

Cody Lobreau is a Canadian beer blogger who reviews every beer he can get his hands on as he believes that he should try every beer twice to get an understanding if it’s truly good or bad.

» BeerCrank.ca