You know that one guy. You’re out at a restaurant or a bar together and, without fail, the waiter comes walking back and apologizes- they’re fresh out of whatever your friend just ordered. Just sold the last one actually. Just emptied the keg actually. Michelle just sold our last bottle a minute ago. Sorry about that.

It seems like it’s always that guy. Everywhere you go, he gets the short stick. Sometimes you wonder to yourself if he offers up a decoy meal in the hopes of cheating fate. Regardless, you know he leads a tortured life, burning sage in his car and shaking a handful of coins over his I Ching in the parking lot in the hopes of one day getting the meal he wants.

Well, lately that guy has been me. I think I get it from my Dad. Part genetics and part the curse of an angry beer God, punishment for his insistence on drinkingpeanut butter beer.
It started with a string of empty kegs all across town. Bridge Brew Works’ Humulus Lupulus, Chestnut Brew Works’ Halleck Pale Ale (which I did later get ahold of), Troegs Brewing Company’s Naked Elf, and the straw that broke the camels back, Brouwerij Van Steenberge N.V. Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Ale.

Have you ever ordered something with the sincere feeling that it was going to hit the spot? That’s how I felt at that moment, running my hand down the ‘Sour & Funky’ section of the menu. I should have known it was too good to be true, and it was. Fresh out, Michelle sold the last one an hour ago.

I should have lit some incense next to the fridge before I left the house.

That brings us to the beer at hand, my second choice within the ‘Sour & Funky’ section, De Brabandere’s Wittekerke Wild American Wild Ale.

It sounds like a water park.

A Belgian Wit beer, Wittekerke Wild is brewed in oak foeders. The 16oz. can itself looks like a carbonated flavored water ad. The pour is a very light straw color with a crystal white head that dissipates so fast you’d think it was a time-lapse photo. Picture something like a Hoegaarden, and at 5% ABV you’d be close. Faint aromas of lemon lead to a light and crisp mouth feel. Notes of peach, lemon, and fresh dryer lint (but in a good way) are followed by a mild, tart, and sour aftertaste that lingers and mellows. If you’ve ever had a La Croix, you’ve come close to tasting Wittekerke Wild.

Overall, it was not something I’d usually catch myself drinking, so it was interesting to try. A very good beer for any hot summer day, the brighter the better. And a great lawnmower beer too. Even if it was the 2nd choice punishment of some vengeful brewer in the sky.