Beer of the Week 2

Van Dieman Brewing White Hills

Witbier 4.6%

The Van Dieman range isn’t easy to get on the mainland but this Tassie brewer’s beers are well worth seeking out.  A while back at the Taphouse I tried the Stack’s Bluff Oatmeal Stout and was very impressed and, needless to say, I was eager to try a few more.  On a recent visit to Hobart I finally got that chance when I found the whole family in at Cool Wine in the city.    

A fan of witbiers, I picked out the White Hills Ale to have with dinner that night and, as I poured the bottle I was greeted with a towering, cloudlike head atop a dense, pale, waxy yellow body.  In my tall (purloined) Moo Brew pilsener glass it bore an uncanny resemblance to ice cream cone.  The aroma was pretty classic witbier stuff, wheat, coriander and cloves, sweet vanilla, with only a subtle banana peel note in the back.  Pretty full bodied for a witbier and quite creamy, the taste is largely banana on approach spiced with citrus peel and coriander followed by a lemony vanilla finish, almost like a cheesecake.  Top stuff.

Who knows when I’ll get a chance to have another bottle of this satisfying wheat beer but a lot of the Tasmanian breweries are so small they don’t send all that much over Bass Straight.  I was also lucky enough to pick up a bottle of the limited release Hedgerow Berry Ale.  Matured over fresh sloes, rose hips and hawthorn berries for six weeks and then bottle matured for half a year which results in a very interesting brew, the sort of thing you’d expect a druid to have in his gourd.  I narrowly missed out on trying the seasonal Little Hell ESB on a hand pump at Preachers in Battery Point as the keg was still a little unsettled, hopefully one or two bottles make it as far as Slow Beer...