Wiper and True: Wheat Beer: White (England: Wheat Ale: 4.4% ABV)
Visual: Pale hazy lemon juice with large white mounded froth head. Moderate carbonation. The head leaves lace.
Nose: Jiff lemon. Key lime and fresh wheat character.
Body: Lightly earthy. Light lime and key lime pie mix. Kiwi. Pepper. Wheaty. Empty middle. Sulphur. Apricot. Soft lemon.
Finish: Earthy notes and bitterness. Wheaty. Light salt character. Kiwi. Sulphur. Apricot.
Conclusion: You know, if I had salt I would add a few grains to this. Chris from Independent Spirit has mentioned several times that it can help with weak mid body beers. I have never tested it but trust his knowledge on such things. Unfortunately I don’t currently have any salt. Yes I am a freak. I just don’t actually use salt that much so never have any in. Probably for the best for tasting note purposes. Adding extra bits may be cheating.
Anyway, as you may have guessed from the above, this has a thin middle. A pity as the aroma, though simple, promised a lovely mix of wheat character and green fruit hops. I mean, that is, in fact, the body you kind of get, backed by earthy and spicy notes – however most of the notes are very lightly done, and the body is slightly thin, which means that the earthy, simple wheat body dominates. I was hoping the loss of the other notes was due to excessive coolness, but I have given the beer plenty of time to warm and to no avail.
It really is just a case that the fruit notes of the aroma are there but too weak to do any good. It does feel like just a small raise in intensity would shove the whole beer from bad to decent or better. It doesn’t have to be super intense, just a a modest raise.
So, a rare beer from Wiper and True that I don’t like and in general a weak beer, so not that much to say here. It is sulphurous and earthy and even feels a tad watery, combine that with a slight salt note in the finish and it occasionally tastes slightly sweaty. So, not a good beer, very much not a good beer.
Ah well, no company bats 100%.
Background: I’m a big fan of Wiper and True, so much so I refer to them as “The Kernel of the west country” – not tried any of their wheat beers before. Was glad to get to use the wheat ale glass again – it is probably the least used of the three beer style designed glasses I was given at Christmas by craft beer sis. Drunk while listening to various Miracle Of Sound tracks.
