Feral Brewing co ‘iWit’ Imperial Witbier

Rating:

image“We’re reinventing wheat beer from the ground up. It does everything a wheat beer should do, but in ways no other wheat beer has. It seamlessly syncs with your calendar, your contacts and music. We’ve taken what you loved about our Belgian wheat beer, Feral White, and upgraded it. More orange. More coriander. More white pepper. More Belgie. Our revolutionary tilt-and-pour technology is a game changer. Simply raise iWit to your lips, tilt to engage and start downloading. No third-party-plug-ins needed.”

We must admit this imperial wheat beer, as interesting as it looks and sounds, has been marketed geniusly. Not only has it taken on Apple’s highly influencial ‘i’ series of iPod, iPad, iPhone etc it’s abbreviation of the style of beer it is (imperial witbier to iWit) is simple but brilliantly effective. We’ve been off witbier now for years but the labelling on this has hooked us in. Respect. Served in a weizen glass. The slightly hazy golden pour generates a fizzy two finger cap which reduces to a collar with poor lacing to show for it. Smells like a good saison initially, very spicy with a high level of citric acidity. Scents of white pepper, tart lemon, underripe banana, meringue, lime juice, citrus rind, champagne and wheat malts come forward. Quite complex. The only slight turn off is this strange hint of grease. May just be a by-product of the extremely high acidity in the beer. Either way it’s a bit weird. The mouth feel is chalky with medium-high carbonation. The body is moderate and the ABV (7%) is exceptionally well disguised. The palate is quite tangy upfront with a mixture of citrus fruits, vanilla and a piquant acidity leading on to a somewhat sweet, fruity mid which reveals a hint of hop dryness. We get fresh mandarin as it progresses forward and finishes with spicy pepper, mandarin and a slight alcohol warmth. We’re loving the subtle heat from the pepper on the back end too. Nice touch. Essentially, we’re a little undecided. One, 7% ABV doesn’t really classify it as an imperial. Two, it’s extremely acidic and finally it’s a little strange…but we don’t mind a bit of that. It certainly has potential but we just weren’t sold on it.