Southampton "Publick House" Double White

Not content just to check out some white beer, I went for double white. Specifically, Southampton bottling's ( bottling instead of brewery sounds like a red flag to me. ) " Publick House" Double White, from La Crosse, Wisconsin. This is a wheat beer with coriander, orange and lemon peel in the Belgian white style. This pours a pale cloudy yellow, but a bit clearer than the Allagash, hopefully a good sign. A lot of citrus on the nose, with some spice and a hint of caramel. Up front you get some citrus, a tiny bit of spice and yeast. Almost no hop initially then it overwhelms and dominates the finish. I guess it might be o.k. to have one of these, but I don't think I"d want more than that. Also, I fail to imagine any food this beer would pair with. I'm struggling to find a place in my heart for this beer, and I turned to the darkside when I read the back of the label. " Take one taste and you'll agree, Phil ( The Brewer) got it "white"". Wow, that's clever. Actually, it's not, it's fucking stupid and I hate you and your double white horse piss. I want to fly to Wisconsin and kick Phil in the nads.

I'm sorry you all had to hear that. A couple more things . First, the Wisconsonites review of this beer. Hey dehr, we love dis here bier, Cause it's nice and white dehr just like all us, don't ya know. Second, I will return to investigate these white beers further another time , but I think it's time to cleanse the palate. So I'm going back to black. Here's to some Bigger flavors and some Longer finishes.

Allagash White

Allagash White is from the Allagash brewing company of Portland Maine. It's a Belgian style wheat beer brewed with mysterious "spices" . You know, they should maybe list some of these spices. What if your allergic to to or just really hate, say coriander. It would be nice to get some heads up. The white pours out a very cloudy pale yellow that in the right light looks white-ish. Lots of hop up front than cardamom spice, followed by a little more hop bite, than orange and yeast on a lengthy finish. This stuff has an impressively complex flavor profile, and I do like the medium body and extensive mouth. While I admire the complexity and range of flavors that doesn't make something inherently good. The more I drink it, the more I lose some of the other flavors and am getting a strong bitter yeast flavor that I don't like. Oh, and it's 8 bucks for a 4-pack.

Now it's time for a rant. This stuff illustrates a major problem I have with wine and beer snobs. You will often hear a pricey wine as having hints of cherry, vanilla, blackberry jam, mineral, tar, leather, aluminum, spice, naked mole rat, and blogger. Sure that's really complex, but that doesn't mean it's any fucking good. I've had several wines that fancy wine mag's said were great, that I thought sucked. And bonus, you get to pay more for the crap. Here ends the rant, for now.

Back to the subject at hand. I see how some people could really like this beer, but I suspect more people pretend to like it, because it's expensive and complex. Next, I'm going to try a different white beer and see if it can measure up to the black ( see Sam Adam's Black Lager). One more thing, since this beer's from Maine I need to in some way make fun of the state and the people who live in it. But all I can think of is lobsters, because that's all there is.