“The white ale story starts in medieval times with brewers’ mind stretching flavour experimentation… Belgian monks played with flavour enhancing ingredients and spices such as wheat, coriander, orange peel and other oddball additions and suspended yeast in their ales to create a cloudy white appearance…With our minds dreaming of beer loving monks from days gone by and our intrigue of specialty Belgian yeast strains we couldn’t resist the idea of tackling the creation of a great Australian White Ale.”
This white ale seems to be the forgotten one when talking about this brewery as the dark ale usually gets all the credit. Served in a weizen glass the extremely cloudy, almost milky straw-yellow pour whipped up a white, 1 inch cap before collapsing to a light covering on top. OK lacing. Lots of wheaty characters make up the aroma with yeasty overtones of banana lollies, clove, spice and bubblegum. Creamy hints of vanilla and faint herbal notes ensure quite a nice aroma. In the mouth it feels slightly frothy with mild carbonation. Medium body. Upfront a subtle fruity element comes forward, offering hints of orange peel and herbs. Through the mid-palate the yeasty flavours kick into gear and sweet, almost cloying hints of banana, honey and clove are noticeable all the way through to the finish. Good duration on the tongue. 4.5% ABV would allow for session drinking but the overly sweet and yeasty flavours get a little too much by the end. Nevertheless, not a bad beer, if we were to compare it with anything we’d say it’s very similar to a Hoegaarden or an Erdinger. Pretty good considering those 2 are world class witbiers.