BA Score: B+
Port City is a microbrew in Alexandria, VA, just 15 minutes from my apartment.
Brewers description: Optimal Wit is brewed in the Belgian Wit Bier tradition. It is brewed with raw wheat and oats and steeped with coriander, orange peel and grains of paradise. This ale is a pale golden color with a bit of cloudy haze from bottle conditioning. This unfiltered ale offers layers of complex nuanced flavors that evolve in the glass. It finishes crisp and refreshes the palate.
It pours with about 1 finger of head (my 6 pack ranged from almost none to about 1 inch) and has a definite cloudiness (at first I though I had poured the sediment in on accident). You can definitely smell the coriander, orange, banana, and a host of unnamed spices. The best and worse thing about the beer is how much it changes. As is often the case for unfiltered microbrews, each beer is slightly different, and each sip can accent different flavors. I had 1 bottle with almost no carbonation, and 1 with a lot (beer flavored Sprite anyone?). But the complex of spices and fruit make it exciting to drink and before you know it, it's gone. The BA score is fair because there are some glasses that are an A- and some that are a C -- especially if some of the sediment is mixed in since it's unfiltered. It's not unique enough to be anybody's favorite Belgian, but it's good. And props for being a small time local brew.
