Turbo

Dupont must have been the first brewery to make a case for creating a subcategory of 'strong saisons' with their Moinettes and Bons Voeux many a decade ago (Moinette Blonde dating back to the fifties even), but in spite of the 'saison revival' in Belgium of the past years, one does not often see this concept being explicitly advertised - so this Turbo by 't IJ, the great Amsterdam pioneer now owned by Moortgat, sparked my curiosity. Medium thick, frothy, snow white, slightly irregular, slowly breaking head on a misty golden blonde robe with khaki-ish tinge and some disparate bubbles here and there. Aroma of banana-flavoured bubblegum but not as exaggerated as I was fearing, pear, ripe apricot, wodka, brioche, candy apple, dry straw, white pepper, dried lemon thyme, rose petals, pineapple, crème anglaise, clove. Fruity onset, pear, pineapple and quite some banana, but again they somehow managed to restrain the isoamylacetate a bit, even though a bubblegummy touch is certainly there; sharpish but fine-bubbled, stingy carbonation, full but slick body. White-bready and cereally, simple pale malts 'amped' by white candi sugar like in any 'hypercommercial' tripel, but then gradually more spicy notes appear which I assume are meant to represent the 'saison' part: a bit black-peppery, with side notes of green bell pepper, clove and nutmeg, all very subtle though, both in aroma and in taste. Smooth finish, in all; there is a leafy, rooty hop bitter element in the tail, behaving more assertively and obstinately than I was expecting, but as I could have guessed from the start, this bitterness is of course partially due to alcohol as well, with this 'jenever'-like effect adding unpleasant wryness in the tail. In spite of its flaws, this is somewhat better than I was expecting (bearing IJ's present-day quality in mind) - but needless to say, we are still miles away from the Dupont examples I mentioned in the beginning of my review here. 'Miles' does not even cover it - 'light-years' seems more satisfying a term. In all: crude and boozy yet less harshly so than feared.

Blik 33cl thuis. Droog, yeasty, bittertonen, steenfruit, bloemig, wat citrustonen, witte peper, koriander, fruitig. (16-11-2025).

Can 33cl. from a local AH supermarket @home poured into a teku glass. Slightly hazy pale golden colour, fair frothy white head, mostly diminishing, light lacing. Aroma swet malt, yeast, pear, some citrus, grassy hops. Taste medium sweet and bitter, malty, grain, grass, some citrus, peppery yeast. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation, sweetbitter aftertaste, good bitterness till the end, sturdy impression, very nice.

Can from Drankenhandel Leiden. Floral and peppery yeast, malt, fruity esters, spicy notes, coriander, citrus, grass. Moderate to medium sweet, decent bitterness. Actually kind of nice, better than I expected.

Draft, half pint. @"Brouwerij 't IJ", Amsterdam (The Netherlands). 25/08/2025
[#8.614 Global - #330 Netherlands - #19 Brouwerij 't IJ]
Pours golden with a white head. Aroma: peppery malts, citrus and crackers. Taste: peppery and floral. Medium bitterness. Refreshing.
Next one, please!

Golden colour, small white head. Grassy, flowery, Belgian yeasty and a bit alcoholic nose. Light to medium-bodied. Citrusy, grassy, bitter, alcoholic and estery Belgian yeast flavours. Strong. Ok.