Omnipollo: 42 Passion Fruit and Lime Witbier (Sweden: Belgian Style Wit: 4.5% ABV)
Visual: Pale hazy lemon juice. Massive loose fragile white bubbled head.
Nose: Crisp. Light kiwi. Slightly soured. Wheat and lightly earthy. Lemon juice. Coriander.
Body: Lightly tart. Shredded wheat. Moderate bitterness. Light kiwi. Tart lime. spirtzy feel like a touch of white wine.
Finish: Squeezed lemon and lime. Shredded wheat. Sour dough. Kiwi. Solid bitterness. Dried passion fruit. White wine dryness.
Conclusion: Would this beer work better if the base beer was more rounded before you started adding the extra ingredients in? Hard to say, but it does feel like the underlying wit has been either neglected, or hidden by the fruit. The base beer isn’t bad, but it doesn’t seem to have anywhere near the character a top end wit should have.
It has a solid, if somewhat leaden hopped bitterness, and a slightly cloying sourness, but the usual tart character and spice is very muted and lacking from the beer. The fruit does add a bit to help offset that. While muted the fruit is there, especially creating a kiwi kind of note in the interactions, and it is this that gives most of the flavor where the base is lacking.
By doing this it does become a passable wit, refreshing due to the sour, slightly cloyed nature, and the flavor comes from the fruit backing. It is evident though that the quirk is basically propping up the wit though.
So, it comes in as drinkable, in fact that is the most impressive quality. It is very easy to drink, but not especially impressive. Still at least it avoids going the over sweet route that a lot of shoddy wit’s go for. An ok beer , but not much above that.
Background: This is how easy I am to sell to. I see a bottle with no label on the front. I look at it, I see it only has the (pictured) label on the back. I buy it. I have no willpower. So, a wit made with Passion fruit and key lime, part of Omnipollo’s “Magic Numbers” small batch series. This is my first experience with Omnipollo, so I’m hoping they will be good. Picked up from Independent Spirit, which is probably a surprise to no one by now.
