MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19

Beer Release: 5pm

Event Start Time: 7pm

Background

Believe it or not, white beers were actually some of the oldest styles of beer brewed in the Leuven region of Belgium during the Middle Ages. This hazy and pale wheat beer often features additional ingredients that help accentuate the unique yeast aroma and flavor. It’s especially refreshing in the summertime, but totally drinkable year round.

The style almost fell into complete obscurity had it not been for Hoegaarden re-popularizing this beer in the twentieth century. Since then, it’s been a style that has appeal on both sides of the Atlantic, with plenty of American craft breweries paying homage to this old world wheat ale, too.

What’s in a Name?

Inspired by the Belgian brewing credo that “if it tastes good, it is good,” witbiers have long been some of our favorite beers to brew and to drink. The opportunity to play around with different types of seasonal ingredients makes this a really fun style to update seasonally.

Because of the flourishes these additional ingredients allow us to offer, and the myriad uses of ingredients like bergamot and lemongrass, we choice the name L’Air de Panache because it’s also a fancy-sounding French name like saison, and because it was the preferred perfume of M. Gustave, the main protagonist in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Launch Party Details:

In addition to bergamot’s various culinary uses, it has traditionally been used for medicinal purposes as well. As a brewery committed to sourcing as many sustainable ingredients as possible, and people who also try to live as naturally as possible, we’re excited to invite Luna Faun back to our taproom for a short demonstration on herbalism as well as a demonstration on how to make herbal medicine using a hot plate.