Review: Corsendonk Blanche

4.8% ABV - Corsendonk Blanche, a refreshing thirst-quenching white beer, is brewed with the finest ingredients in the Belgian Ardennes and filled with unfiltered. It has fruity aromas, a subtle coriander fragrance mixed with notes of orange. These herbs are easy on the palate and make the Corsendonk Blanche a soft and refreshing beer.

The first time I ever tried Corsendonk was thanks to an awesome buddy at a bottle share a few years back. A few months after the bottle share, Corsendonk came to Manitoba for a very brief period of a time (more like a blink of a moment). The beer was something like $5/330mL bottle which is pretty cheap for Belgian beer but my buddy scoffed at the price saying that's a ripoff, but he was able to buy their beers for cheap in Europe.. while in Canada it costs quite a bit more to procure European beers, especially quality ones. I found a mixed four pack of their beer a few years later and I've been waiting to review the beers until now.

Appearance: A bit of a murky orange body with a decently thick snow white head on top. The head diminishes a bit as it warms up a bit but after a while, leaving behind a very light amount of lacing on the glass.

Aroma: This reminds me a bit too much of Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc's aroma a bit too much.. yeah, they're the same style but I found with K64 Blanc is that it was way too overly coriandery for the sake of being coriandery and this is exactly it. This is full on coriander and a tonne of orange zest bomb. There's a good amount of Belgian yeastiness to give it a breadiness but really, the coriander powers this beer. The last thing I get from the aroma is a hint of caramel.

Taste: A bit of a gritty graininess followed by a lot of coriander. Once I get past the coriander I notice a bit of caramel, a good deal of orange zest and a grassy hop profile. Quite sweet and yeah.. very coriander forward but nowhere near as pungent as the aroma this time around. The mouthfeel is fairly dry, a bit carbonated, while the aftertaste is coriander and a bit of a graininess.

Overall Thoughts: I'm a big fan of witbiers but I find too many of them have too much coriander and orange/orange peel to them, this is no exception. Due to that, I rarely ever buy beers of this style anymore though I do really enjoy Unibroue's Blanche de Chambly once in a while.

https://www.corsendonk.com/en/beers/wheat-beer/corsendonk-blanche