I’ve been hearing quite a bit about the Deschutes Brewery over the past year, so when I saw that The Foodery had several of their beers in stock, I decided to pick up a couple bottles. You know, “for research purposes only”.
Here is what Deschutes has to say about their Chainbreaker White IPA:
Deschutes is taking you into the next beer frontier. Brewed with wheat and pilsner malt; this IPA displays beautiful citrus aromas from Cascade and Citra hops that meld with the esters of Belgian yeast. Think thirst quenching hopped-up wit beer with enough IBUs to warrant the IPA name.
And now for my impressions of this beer…
- Appearance: Slightly cloudy, golden yellow color. Off white, fluffy head that tops off at about an inch and dissipates rapidly.
- Aroma: Upfront, it smells like your typical Belgian Wit with a healthy dose of clove, lemon zest, yeast, and coriander. A bit of hoppiness in the background with some subtle pineapple and grapefruit aromas coming through.
- Taste: Light to medium bodied with very light carbonation. At the onset, all of those Belgian Wit flavors that I picked up in the nose are front and center. A touch of hoppy bitterness comes through at mid-palate, but never enough to overpower the initial flavors. Lots of lemony citrus at the finish with those grapefruity hops finally showing up a bit in the aftertaste.
Deschutes Brewery calls their Chainbreaker a White IPA, but from what I can tell, the IPA aspects of this beer are playing a supporting role. Although this beer wasn’t as hoppy as I was expecting, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. Overall, I found this to be very crisp and refreshing, and would love to try this again on a warm summer day. My only request is that they drop the IPA from the label because I think it’s a bit misleading.
