7.4

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

Blonde ale commissioned by a shop in Dendermonde specialised in gardening supplies, part of the Aveve chain; I bought my sample in the Aveve of Deinze. Comes from a steinie bottle with old-fashioned and quaint label (as usual with De Graal) and is allegedly hopped with Pekko, an American variety named after a Finnish deity - and one I frankly never heard of before. Egg-white, frothy, pillowy, thickly cobweb-lacing, thick and stable, very 'Belgian' head on a lightly misty yellow blonde robe with khaki tinge and a whirlwind of almost champagne-like sparkling, turning hazy further on. Aroma initially a bit muffled by the thick, dense head, but gradually unveiling impressions of spice crackers, halfripe banana, dried grapefruit peel, old juniper berries, coriander seed (actually added - at least this is what I assume to be the "spices" mentioned in the ingredients list), white bread crust, raw sweet potato, clove, raw (non-pickled) gherkin, mugwort, unripe hard peach, moist white pepper, dried apple peel, straw. Fruity onset, sweetish but not overly so, banana ester mingled with unripe peach, green pear and apple peel notes, very active carb but also very fine-bubbled so not too harsh yet still able to add a lot of minerality to a smooth, fluffy core, constructed of bready pale malts and bready yeast. Coriander seed flavouring keeps everything firmly in Belgian traditions while these Pekko hops make for a floral, ever so slightly citrusy, gently yet confidently bittering ending, through which the sweetness of the malts, spicy phenols (clove) and fruitiness also keep shining. I can understand the juniper berry association announced on the label, coming from the Pekko, but 'mint' and 'sage' seem a bit far-fetched (though I hasten to add that my own descriptions may often seem far-fetched as well). There are herbal accents for sure, along with a light citrusiness, but then the hops have been applied in a Belgian ale kind of way - i.e., not in an Anglo-Saxon IPA way, so they remain relatively modest in power and at the same time are a partially hidden from view by the yeasty effects and, more than anything else, the added coriander flavouring. Belgian blonde throughout, even in spite of the New World hop variety: a formula we have seen pop up in this country very often ever since U.S. style influences reached the shore of West Flanders or the depths of the Ardennes woods. I do not dislike this approach if it is well done, and De Graal obviously has the experience (active for more than two decades now) to execute an essentially simple Belgian blonde correctly. Too bad this formula is not the most suitable one to get to know a hop variety one is not familiar with: I guess I will have to find some clean IPA hopped with Pekko for that.