Review: Hoegaarden Original White Ale

[ellyssian]

Hoegaarden Original White Ale ~ Currently residing on the bottom spot, below even unreviewed, unworthy, and unwanted kinds of beer-like products (such as Budweiser and Coors and so on...), this was the biggest disappointment I've ever tasted. I couldn't get through the bottle, and even Stacy, who mentioned how bad it is to leave beer behind, couldn't force herself to drink enough to get this bottle below the 3/4 level. My first thoughts were "interesting", but on my second and third sips I realized that it just didn't work for me. The cloudy, off-whitish, appearance put me off a bit; admittedly, I prefer darker and heavier beers, and this is about as far as you can get from that ideal ("white ale" being a dead giveaway of its construction). The spices didn't come through as clearly to me, and the flavor was just unpleasant and revolting enough that I couldn't continue. The feel of the beer was more reminiscent of a malt beverage such as a Zima ~ it felt like it wanted to go after the refreshing, keep-the-wine-cooler-drinkers-on-beer kind of thing. The bottom line, however, was that the taste of it was so off-putting, refreshment was out of the question. To be fair, even though I kind of don't feel it deserves it, the label itself recommends a hexagonal glass, with a very specific kind of pour, and we were glass-less at our tasting... however, there wasn't a shred of decency there that would lead me to try to drink it in the proper manner.