Cerana: Bira 91: White (India: Belgian Wit: 5% ABV)
Visual: Dark cloudy lemon juice. Large yellow white bubbled head.
Nose: Orange zest. Lemon cream. Vanilla. Creamy. Quite sweet. Lemon curd.
Body: Lemon curd. Wheaty. Orange zest. Vanilla pods. Peppery. Grapefruit.
Finish: Wheaty bitterness. Sour lemon juice. Peppery. Grapefruit. Dry lemon.
Conclusion: This is the best Indian beer that I tried during my holiday in the north of India! Ok, admittedly that is a low bar to clear considering that the competition has been varied Kingfisher beers and Boom Strong. So, instead of damning it with that faint praise how about we just ask the question, is this any good then?
It is sweet on the nose and fruity, which resulted in me expecting a very Hoegaarden like sweet and heavy wit beer – however what I got was a body that leans more toward a traditional wit with drier lemon and lightly peppery touches. Interesting.
There’s some orange zest, which is not unexpected for a wit, but it goes into light grapefruit notes which is a bit more new hops than I would expect. Nice touch and it takes it a touch tarter and sour at times, refreshing, but always returning to that dry lemon base.
It is very slightly rough edged around the wheaty and peppery notes, but generally pretty decent, if still on the lower half of Belgian style wits. It isn’t bad – and if fact if you are looker for a non lager beer in India this is a pretty inoffensive one. It is just it is nothing special compared to the wide range of awesome wits out there.
Does the job though.
Background: Found this one near the end of the holiday in India, a few days after being violently ill which seemed to be the common tourist event for our group in India. I had been wandering and spotted an alcohol store. As always there were not many local beers, but they did have this from Bira 91, and since it is not part of their Boom line I had hopes it would be more interesting than that, cheaper, more mainstream aimed, line. I had been hoping from something from a brewery I had not tried yet but ah well, ya can’t have everything.
