Full Sail Brewing Company, of Hood River, Oregon, produces 4 seasonal selections each year, three of which are branded as LTD, which stands for both limited edition and also “Live The Dream.” LTD 3 is the summer offering and is a pilsner-style beer perfect for warm summer weather and BBQs. It is also an award winner with a silver medal in 2009 at the World Beer Championships.

Full Sail describes this summer brew as follows:

Well looky here, a crisp new pilsner-style lager all ready to rock your tastebuds’ little world. The latest addition to our LTD series is pale-golden in color, featuring a spicy floral hop aroma, malty medium body, and a smooth, thirst quenching finish.

Another great thing, for homebrewers, about their LTD series is that they list the ingredients on the bottom of the box so you can make an attempt at recreating this beer at home.

Date Reviewed. August 9, 2009.

Where I Found It. Trader Joe’s in San Mateo, CA

Serving Type. 12 oz bottle into a glass.

Appearance. Full Sail LTD 3 has a smooth white head that lasted long enough to take a few pictures. This beer is crystal clear with a rich burnished golden yellow color.

Smell. After opening and pouring out the beer you can immediately smell the floral and spicy bouquet of the Sterling hops. The malt aroma is biscuity, sweet, and like fresh sweet grains. There is a slight coppery smell that I always get when drinking Pilsners. Ever so slightly citrusy.

Taste. LTD 3 is gently sweet and well-balanced by a smooth bitter hops taste. This is a crisp beer and the bitterness does not linger. It has a bit of grainy sweetness with a hint of a buttery flavor. All-in-all this is a nicely flavored pilsener.

Mouthfeel. This is a medium-light bodied beer with a good amount of carbonation. Palate cleansing.

Drinkability. Thirst quenching, crisp, and smooth and very easy to drink.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (20%): 4.0
• Smell (20%): 4.0
• Taste (40%): 4.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 4.5
• Drinkability (10%): 5.0
• Overall: 4.15

Information

• Style: pilsener
• Brewery: Full Sail Brewing Company
• Alcohol by volume: 5.6%
• Original Gravity: 1.056
• Hops: Sterling
• Malt: 2-row pale malt
• Beer Advocate rating: 3.64 (as of May 9, 2010)

Other Reviews

• Beervana – Hard Reviews: Full Sail LTD 03 and Ninkasi Radiant
• The Full Pint – Review – Full Sail LTD 03 Lager
• Draft Magazine – Tasting Notes: Full Sail LTD Series No. 3
• Beer Advocate – LTD Series – Bottling 03
• Rate Beer – Full Sail Limited Edition Lager (LTD 03)

For Super Bowl I was looking for a refreshing beer to accompany BBQ and a beer that friends would enjoy. I noticed that Flying Dog Woody Creek White was still on the shelves at a local market so I picked up a six pack.

I was first introduced to Flying Dog Brewery, a Colorado headquartered (and now with the brewery facilities in Maryland), in the late 90s when a college roommate introduced me to Flying Dog’s Old Scratch Amber Lager. I’ve thought very highly of all of their beers that I’ve tried since, including Woody Creek White.

Woody Creek White is a Belgian Wit style beer, also called witbier or bière blanche, which is a hazy wheat ale brewed with coriander and bitter orange peel. Flying Dog releases this refreshing beer as a summer seasonal but, although it is great during warm weather, I found that this beer is just as good in the middle of winter, while eating ribs and watching a football game.

Where I Found It. I picked up a 12oz bottle 6-pack at a Draeger’s Market in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Serving Type. When I sampled this brew, I poured it from a 12oz bottle into a pint glass.

Appearance. Woody Creek White has a cloudy yellow-orange color that looks like lemonade with a splash of orange juice. Another possible description of the appearance is like that of a light colored honey. The head is white and doesn’t last very long.

Smell. The bouquet has citrus, lemon, with a hint of orange and spice. The aroma has a hint of sweet unroasted grains. The smell is not bread-like.

Taste. The taste is crisp with light citrus, like lemon with a hint of coriander. It is sweet and refreshing with very little bitterness. There is just a hint of banana and coves, which is found in many Belgium beers and hefeweizens.

Mouthfeel. Woody Creek White is light bodied, crisp, and has no bitter aftertaste. With an original gravity of 1.047 and an alcohol content of 4.8%, then the final gravity is around 1.0125, which is indeed a light bodied beer.

Drinkability. This is a smooth witbier and it is easy to drink more than one of these in a single session. I’ll pick up another six-pack this summer.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (20%): 4.0
• Smell (20%): 4.0
• Taste (40%): 4.5
• Mouthfeel (10%): 4.0
• Drinkability (10%): 4.5
• Overall: 4.25

Caption from the Bottle

Each bottle of Woody Creek White includes the following caption:

Flying Dog Brewery founder George Stranahan is widely considered to be the unofficial mayor of Woody Creek, Colorado. George and his collection of social misfits known as “Woody Creatures” are the reason this mountain community has morphed into Gonzo Ground Zero. This unfiltered and traditionally spiced Wit Beer pays tribute to this hotbed of progressive thought.

Information

• Brewery: Flying Dog Brewery
• Style: Belgian wit
• Alcohol by volume: 4.8%
• Original gravity: 1.047 (11.7 Plato)
• Bitterness: 17 IBU
• Hops: German Hallertau
• Malts: Belgian Pilsner, wheat, oats, unmalted wheat, flaked wheat, flaked oats
• Adjuncts: coriander and bitter orange peel
• Beer Advocate rating: 3.77 (as of Feb. 14, 2009)
• More information at Flying Dog

Other Reviews

• Everyday Drinkers – Woody Creek White Belgian-Style Wit
• 801 0n Tap – Flying Dog: Woody Creek White
• The Brew Site – Woody Creak White
• Beer Haiku Daily – Woody Creek White
• The Opinionator Beer Page – Flying Dog Woody Creek White
• The Drunken Polack – Flying Dog Woody Creek White
• RateBeer – Flying Dog Woody Creek White
• Beer Advocate – Woody Creek White