Upon first sip, I nearly mistook Avery Brewing Company’s (Boulder, Colorado) White Rascal for a more famous Belgian-style white ale: Hoegaarden. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but in consuming the rest of my pint of this pale, hazy, blonde brew, no quality emerged as unique. I was hoping for something more distinctive, but by all means this was a fine beer.
Like many Belgian-style witbiers (white beers), White Rascal is unfiltered, giving it a cloudy appearance. Without being too sweet, it featured the typical overtones of citrus; the background was a perky, herbal mixture of coriander, parsley, and perhaps mint. The body was thinner than Franziskaner, but had a bit more heft to it than Flying Dog Tire Bite, making it light enough to be refreshing, but not so watery as to evoke a lite American macro-brew.
With a head that dissolved quickly and no lacing around the glass, White Rascal’s appearance didn’t exactly hold my attention the way that darker beers tend to, but that’s a trait most wheat beers share. Overall, this brew showed a lot of positive qualities, but also failed to distinguish itself. I give Avery Brewing Company’s White Rascal 74 out of 100 points.
Photo courtesy of AveryBrewing.com
Great beer reviews, Moose.
I used to be a huge white ale fan. Blue Moon was my beer of choice for a good part of 2005. I lost a lot of my fire for it though. I’m starting to get more and more in ambers.
I thought Blue Moon was good at first but now it’s just mediocre to me.
While a big hops fan, I also love a good white beer. And the best ones I’ve had are Ommegang’s and, shoot, I can’t remember the other one. I think it’s also brewed in Cooperstown, NY, though.
Ommegang’s is solid.
Oh yeah, Allagash is the other. Yummm.