7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

The newest beer produced by this tiny microbrewery in Saint Cyprien, a medieval village in the French Dordogne region; allegedly inspired by Vikings, which would either suggest the use of 'northern' herbs or the use of an ancient Scandinavian farmhouse (kveik) yeast strain - but neither of these two seems applicable here. From a 75 cl bottle with crown cap donated by Hinke, cheers! Very thick and frothy, rocky, egg-white, lavishly lacing head on a cloudy peach blonde robe with deep beige tinge, turning all murky and more brownish-grey even in the end - clearly not filtered indeed. Aroma of orange pith, chamomile, soggy biscuit, young mugwort, grapefruit zest, bitter honey, clove, old bread crust, wormwood, raw turnip, drying grass, moist white pepper, tonic water. Fruity, estery onset, peach, pear and vague tamarillo, but only restrainedly sweetish; very fine-bubbled and therefore softish carbonation, fluffy mouthfeel. Full bready, lightly biscuity- and croissant-ish maltiness, quickly bittered by a very pronounced, 'raw', floral, wormwoody hoppiness stretching deep into the throat, with bitter herb-, white pepper- and citrus peel-like flavours mingling with very strongly bready yeastiness, in itself producing a whiff of clove-like phenolic spiciness. Ends quite earthy, a bit dusty even, but also very bread-juicy, spicy and hop bitter - almost as, or rather: exactly like, some or other Walloon blonde, with which it shares average strength as well... The connection with Vikings was even more obscure to me after tasting this, but this is no clean Anglo-Saxon pale ale either: given that the label only mentions 'pale ale' and that the brewer himself is an Irishman, I was expecting one here, but like some of his other creations, this is far more 'Belgian' in style than anything else. I personally can appreciate a super-earthy and bready Walloon style blonde from time to time though, so I am certainly not complaining...