Draught at Monk's: pours gold with white head. Aroma is yeasty, fruity melange. Quite sweet. Light touch of bitterness. Lingering and very pleasant aftertaste.

14/VIII/25 - on tap @ Loods 35 (Zele, BE), BB: n/a (2025-783)

Clear gold blond beer, creamy dense white head, stable, adhesive, falls down eventually, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: a bit malty, lots of banana, yeasty esters, fruity, some honey, a hint of vanilla. MF: ok carbon, medium to full body. Taste: a little malty, slightly sweet, good bitterness, pretty refreshing, honey, malty, some banana, a bit herbal, green pears, yeasty touch. Aftertaste: slightly sweet, vanilla, honey, a little grassy, some alcohol, caramel, a touch of saffron, pleasant bitter finish, spicy, peppery touch, some bread dough.

Rated as Chimay 175, before it became available bottled as Chimay Blonde. New and only temporarily available blonde celebrating the 175th birthday of the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont, even though brewing only commenced twelve years later; only to be found from tap, not bottled, in a selection of beer-oriented pubs throughout Belgium and France, plus an even more limited selection of partners in other countries. I had mine from tap at Trollekelder, located right across St.-Jacobs church in the heart of Ghent’s nightlife area. Thick and frothy, snow white, moussey, Brugse Kant-like lacing, very stable head, clear yellow-golden robe with pale apricot tinge. Aroma of green pear, unripe peach, cold cooked potatoes, white bread, grass, cold pasta, moist white pepper, field flowers, banana peel, coriander seed, clove, minerals. Clean, sleek onset, quite restrained in sweetness for the genre, hinting at unripe banana, green pear and apple peel, but marred by overly strong, numbing carbonation, adding a sharp minerality throughout; rounded pale malt core, cereally and simple, acquiring a grassy and floral hop bitter note which bitters adequately without overpowering, so that everything in the end remains well in balance: the ‘green’ fruitiness, the minerality, the pale malts and the hops. Altogether dryish and quenching, though not particularly festive; I hope the 175th birthday of the actual Chimay brewery in 2037 may inspire the abbey to come up with a more opulent and celebrational brew, but that is still quite far away from now, of course… Anyway: too bad for the overcarbonation, otherwise enjoyable for what it is, namely a blonde of medium strength holding the middle between Chimay Dorée and Chimay Triple (also flavour-wise). In that sense I have a strong feeling that it has been inspired by Westmalle Duo, which was released in spring, also in limited quantities and also only from tap…