100 Beers, 100 Days: Day #2
The first beer I ever drank that I really enjoyed was Hoegaarden. At the time, the concept of really good beer was foreign to me, though I was willing to give it a try. After that half liter in the heavy octagonal glass, I was hooked. In the years since, I have come to realize that Hoegaarden is decent, but not really anything special anymore. It’s basically an industrial product put out by mega huge brewing conglomco InBev. But I still have a soft spot for it.
So I was very excited to decide that tonight’s beer would be Allagash White, it being right in the style of my first really good beer. It comes in a big 750 mL bottle, corked and caged. While these bottles are pretty excellent, they’re not reusable for homebrewing without a corker. That’s too bad. It pours a transparent, straw yellow color with a gigantic white head that lasts and lasts. It’s very effervescent, too. I’m one of those people who sticks his nose in beer, and this time my nose tells me it’s wheaty and spicy. You can definitely smell the coriander and orange peel in there.
The taste is basically everything I liked about Hoegaarden - light, relatively low on hops but high on spice, effervescent. It is a very refreshing beer. There’s wheat in there, of course. There’s perhaps a touch of creaminess, citrus, and maybe even a little bit of pepper. I think that’s enough to look for if you ever want to give it a try. Anyway I like this beer quite a lot. I think I could enjoy several more, though perhaps in slightly smaller quantities. At 5% it’s not any stronger than a normal beer, but a fifth of it is an awful lot of liquid. I don’t think Allagash White would benefit from extensive aging so drink while the drinking’s good.