Two new beers from Wide Street today, and something of a departure. The brewery specialises in wild fermentation, barrel-ageing and blending, but these are both straight-up (ish) takes on more controlled beer styles. The funky stuff isn’t for everyone (though it should be) so I guess this is the brewery trying to appeal to less adventurous drinkers. If that’s what it takes to get the koelschip full now and again, then it’s fine with me.
The year’s first warm evening on the patio brought me Summer in Siam, a witbier. It’s on the light side at only 4.3% ABV, and they’ve skipped the coriander and orange peel, hoping to get their combined effect from lemongrass instead. In the glass it’s a sickly-looking greenish-yellow, though the head is properly white and fluffy. A bit of a farty whiff suggests that the yeast is properly Belgian, at least. Before I could get to the flavour, I was already disappointed by the texture. Beneath that fluffy foam it’s not a fluffy beer, and from the first pull was unfortunately thin and fizzy. You do get your money’s worth from the lemongrass: it tastes very much of it, clear and green and herbal, with a lacing of citric acidity. There’s dry rasp from the grain and then it all tails off abruptly. I guess it’s meant to be easy-drinking refreshment, but I think it needs to be sweeter for that. This is quite a pointy and severe witbier, rather than a fun one. The lemongrass is a highlight but it doesn’t have much else going for it, I thought.
Its sibling is a hazy IPA called Midnight in a Perfect World, a collaboration with Trouble Brewing. If the witbier was no oil painting, this one is even uglier: the orangey-beige of an earwax smear. Luckily the aroma smells fresh and clean, of lemon candy and vanilla. The murk reasserts itself in the flavour: it is extremely dreggy, tasting like a full glassful of the bottom of the keg. I’m sure all of that did wonders for my vitamin B levels, but I didn’t enjoy the ingestion. I can’t tell you anything very much about the Motueka and Nelson Sauvin hops’ contribution to the taste because that’s buried under a loud layer of earth, grit and leafy bitterness. While it’s stronger than the previous one at 5.4% ABV, it still seems very thin, like the witbier, though not as fizzy. I hope I just got a bad can and that the whole batch wasn’t this mucky.
This pair really didn’t do it for me, and I don’t think I can place the blame on them not being in the brewery’s usual fun and funky area of work. Neither represents their respective mainstream style at all well. A bit of bugs ‘n’ Brett would have benefitted either.
