Profiled by Maria Devan for PGA
Ithaca beer’s 17 is like a breath of fresh air. It has a fruity scent that is tempered by sweet wheat. It’s got a lovely floral to the nose and a bit of delightful pepper. That yeast is delicate and dry. There’s funk but it too is delicate. taste and it’s like it is as light as air and and clear as water. The flavors are cool. Yellow golden flavor like it’s color. The beer is hazy and beautiful topped with a white crown. Light fragrant wood is on the nose. The taste is surprisingly herbal. It’s pungent with bitter herbal. It’s also peppery. The bitter is a tad sharp. Light honey scents start to come forward as it warms. It’s tart but not bone dry in the finish. That touch of honey finishes this beer and a peppery little edge.
The Brett in this adds a musty quality as if to the wood. An old attic closet. It’s light and feather like to the nose. This beer has so many gentle things going on and then there’s this tremendous fruit. You can imagine that a bee would like the scent. It’s a looker in the glass and the bitterness keeps you up from swooning. It ‘s like small flowers on tall stems. With sap and bitterness in them. The wheat is dry and sweet perfection. Soft and rolling. The carbonation is perfect. Perfect lightness form bubbles.
This beer is not timid though. It has sharpness and straight line edges to it. Wheat is crisp and well defined. It’s a wafting sweetness to it.
Congratulations Ithaca on a lovely beer.
4.5
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
________________________________________Beer HERE
Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is frequent reviewer of beer and a beer lover deluxe.