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Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Writing about beer and pubs since 2007


We weren’t sure what to expect from a beer with this name, but extreme pallor*was, we thought, a given.

After a firm zip and hiss, it actually emerged from the bottle somewhere near*amber, haze-free, with an immoveable, whipped-cream head.
Puzzled, we read the label again: it’s their ‘expression of a wit bier’ with IPA hopping, they say, but we think it’s actually an IPA with wit bier spices and citrus.*That fine distinction made sense to us, anyway.
The (new concept klaxon!)*far*aroma — the one we could smell from a foot away — was of the candied pineapple, Del Monte tinned peaches variety, rather than at the weedy, piney end of the spectrum.
Getting closer — the near aroma –*there was something mysterious to ponder over, barely perceptible but distinctly weird. Our first thought was swimming pool chlorine, then antiseptic, then… yes, that was it — the white rind of a *soft French cheese!*So,*ammonia, perhaps?*That somehow fit into the Continental rustic farmhouse theme, and we found ourselves quite at ease with its occasional intrusion.
The beer tasted overwhelmingly orangey, in a sticky, Jaffa Cake fashion, but also somewhat salty, almost seaweedy, and had the texture of a vanilla mousse as it foamed on the tongue.
It tasted much bigger than its 4.5% ABV, though not at all ‘boozy’, with*just*enough complexity to keep the attention. It almost tasted*wrong, but not quite, which is what we’d call a sweet spot. It was, in other words, tasty.
We’ve sometimes used the term ‘home brew’ as a pejorative when describing commercial beers, but we’re rethinking that: if a friend had brewed this, we’d congratulate them heartily.
Disclosure: we got this beer in a sample case sent to us by Eebria.
Siren White IPA


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