Watou’s Wit Beer

I tried this lovely beer Hotel de la Paix, which is a local restaurant in the center of Poperinge.

Watou Wit is a white beer.  That is different from a Lambic because it is made with wheat instead of hops.  The beer is local, being produced in Poperinge, my town, by Leroy Brewery.

Leroy brewery is part of the Belgian Family Brewers, which is a nonprofit organization whose objective is to promote historic brewing method, from independent owned breweries, who add values to the authenticity and identity of Belgian beer.

The label guarantees that the beer was brewed in Belgium, on a recognized brewery site, comes from an independent family owned brewery which has been operational for at least 50 years, and is an original and unique beer.

The brewery was founded in 1862. However this is Belgium and nothing is ever that simple.

In 1624, an earldom was granted and the family as given a castle in Watou, where they constructed a Brewery. Everything is going great until the French Revolution in 1795, the castle gets destroy and pillaged.

Local farmers helped reconstruct the brewery under the slogan, “Revolt all you want, but we still need beer here.” –That is just so great.

High Fermentation beer starts being produced in 1862 and today they offer 11 different beers.

I give this beer 5 out of 5 stars. I like it because it tastes good, is local, there is a castle, and royalty is involved.  It is a fairytale beer!

The taste profile is a roller coaster. It taste a bit spiced in the beginning, it moves to is a bitter and slight sour note, and then finishes on a dry citrus fresh taste.

I had escargot with it and thought it married very well.

You can check out Leroy Brewery and Belgian Family Brewers. The sites are available in English, French and Dutch.

See you next time

Tot ziens mijn appelsiens.

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Check out my review of Belle-Vue ExtraKriek