First you need to understand what is expected of a Wit Beer before you can understand the unexpected. A Wit Beer also known as a Witbier is a Belgian style ale usually very light in color and somewhat cloudy as it is an unfiltered wheat beer. A typical Witbier is yellow in color with a foggy hue but light and crisp with hints of coriander and orange peel although it can be spiced with just about anything you could imagine the goal is still a light crisp and usually highly carbonated beer. Then comes Black in the new Wit from Terrapin and New Belgium who in my opinion are two very different brewers with completely different brew styles as neither brewer makes any beer that would ever remind you of the other. New Belgium usually brews a lot of great beers but they seem to play it safe with most of their beers and seem to keep to a quality standard that they maintain but I would bet they use the same yeast in the majority of their beers, aka house yeast. Well on the Terrapin side they seem to love to blur the line between the what people expect and what they like to brew as you will find the majority of their beers all seem to have a hint or more of rye and I would bet Black is the new Wit has just hint of rye somewhere in there too. I took a gamble as my local supplier had these hidden treasures hidden around a corner where no one seemed to even take notice and I must say I was pleasantly surprised with just how crisp and refreshing this beautiful black witbier was with a nice hint of spice from the rye that almost muted the coriander but the orange still helped keep the citrus notes and then that almost bitter sweet roasted flavor like someone had dropped a tiny bit of dark chocolate into the entire batch to top it off. Shockingly this new Black is the new Wit from Terrapin and New Belgium is kicking it at 8.2% ABV but based on how crisp and smooth this wonderful beer is you’d never even realize it until it was a bit too late. Although I doubt we will ever see this great beer again this definitely would be one that I’d pick up an entire 6 pack from time to time as I went out of my way to swing back and grab a second bomber bottle to ensure I could enjoy a 2nd round before it was too late.

Black is the new Wit from Terrapin and New Belgium