GET THE LEAD OUT, LOST COAST!

Like you, I’m a big fan of the “witbier”, the Belgian white popularized by Hoegaarden and Celis White and countless others. It’s defined thusly on Beer Advocate:

A Belgian Style ale that's very pale and cloudy in appearance due it being unfiltered and the high level of wheat, and sometimes oats, that's used in the mash. Always spiced, generally with coriander, orange peel and other oddball spices or herbs in the back ground. The crispness and slight twang comes from the wheat and the lively level of carbonation. This is one style that many brewers in the US have taken a liking to and have done a very good job of staying to style. Sometimes served with a lemon, but if you truly want to enjoy the untainted subtleties of this style you'll ask for yours without one. Often referred to as "white beers" (witbieren) due to the cloudiness / yeast in suspension.

I love that cloudy, yeasty taste that often reeks of oranges & crisp spices. I was pretty excited to try the LOST COAST GREAT WHITE because some folks had written nice things about it, and besides, it’s crafted right up the coast from me. Somehow I’d missed it all this time. Well good thing for that! This beer, as delivered in a bottle at San Francisco’s Knockout Tavern, was a bit of a minor mess. Thin, sourish, watery beer. No hints of orange peel nor coriander – well maybe some coriander, but that by itself doesn’t a beer make. And no, I didn’t put a lemon slice in it - and they offered. I was expecting something much more juicy and refreshing, sour-ish in a good way – even that SOUTHAMPTON DOUBLE WHEAT I tried last year (that everyone but me seems to love) was a good deal better. I’m going with 5/10 and plan to stay away from this one unless I can be convinced I got a bad bottle or something.