Thursday 9 October 2008

Whitewater Belfast Lager - Mind out for the Nettles

When I was young, I lived out in the country and one of my favourite times of the year was late spring. All the flora and fauna of the countryside were starting to wake up and make their presence felt in the landscape. I wasn't one for telly then, or homework come to think of it, so I usually wandered through the fields close to our home. I'm not really sure what I was looking for but I didn't find it. 
Perhaps it's just nostalgia kicking in but it seemed then that the sights, scents and sounds had a different quality. Somehow sharper, crisper and more intense.
My real taste of Belfast lager brought all of this flooding back. (I had sampled a little of it at SeptemberFest.)
I have already had the Clotworthy Dobbin from the same brewery, which is one of my favourites, so expectations were very high for their lager. It didn't disappoint.
It was the smell that hooked me in. It had that fresh, clear, fragrance that I didn't think you could bottle. I could get the smell of crushed nettles and the taste of sour sorrel as I took my first sip. Sip? Well a gulp. A full flavoured lager with a nice hint of bitterness.
This is what a lager should be because, well, firstly it has taste, secondly it's really refreshing and thirdly because I said so.
The Verdict.
Another good one from Whitewater. Decent size bottle too!
Whitewater Belfast Lager - 50cl - 4.5% - Northern Ireland

3 comments:

Alistair Reece said...

The list of required buying for November keeps getting longer. This sounds really good - would be interesting to bring a bottle back to compare it with some of my favourite Czech lagers. Just hope the people we are staying with have a decent off-licence near by.

The Beer Nut said...

Gotta say, I didn't like this at all. It tasted like the lager made by small breweries who aren't really set up to make lager: full of butterscotch and mustiness. I seem to be alone in that opinion, though. I'll give it another go if I see it at a reasonable price.

Liam said...

Well it could have got me on a good day so I'll be trying it again. That taste just really appealed to me. I guess it takes all kinds.....