Just Beet Wit

When I was in 6th grade, I was very into Michael Jackson. In fact, one of my fondest memories was taking a dance class where we did our recital to Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’. I still smile just thinking about it.
So, when it came time to naming our latest beer – a Belgian-style White (or Wit), enhanced with an heirloom variety of beets –  to me, the name was pretty clear – Just Beet (W)it! It perfectly captures the fun packed into this fuchsia-colored, smile-inducing beverage.
If you were to judge a beer by it’s color, you might think this beer would taste sweet, almost candy like, but it’s not. The fruitiness (and orange notes) from the beer’s wit base definitely shine through, but, overall, it is a drier beer, marked by a great earthy nose and very balanced beet taste. The carbonation is a bit on the higher side (as it should be with a wit),  giving the beer a really bright and clean taste.
We just kegged up this beer, but our team is already really enjoying this beer. It’s a lot of fun, and it pairs nicely with lots of different foods – especially those that you might already add beets to (e.g., salads, goat cheese, oranges, cabbage, fresh sausages, apple tarts, burgers, etc.)
So how did we make it? Well, we started by first making the base beer – which is a wit. A wit is made using wheat, coriander, chamomile, and orange peel. It is a very refreshing base- nice and citrusy and very drinkable. In fact, this is the base beer we use for our Rhubarb Wit, which we make 3-4 times every Summer.
Before beet-ing up the whole 90 gallon batch, we decided to do a small test using beets from Strawbery Banke in Porstmouth. (Some of you may have tried this at the Passport event at Strawbery Banke a week or so ago.) We were pretty happy with the results, so we decided to ‘go for it’ using Forono beets – a heirloom variety of beets grown by Josh Jennings at Meadow’s Mirth Farm. Unlike the test batch, we held back a bit on the beets, letting more of the wit shine through and in a perfect balance of earthy and fruity.
For those of you not familiar with the Forono beet, this is what they look like:

We then chopped them up:

Cooked them:

Bagged them up, and added them to the fermenter:

Just Beet (W)it will be available starting this week at the brewery. We love (w)it and hope you guys do, too!