7.4

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

Blonde ale named after a horse which had a home win at Waregem Koerse in 1983 - apparently in that year the Waregem horse Piggly Wiggly won the Great Steeplechase of Flanders in a tradition going back to the 19th century (and one that basically put the town of Waregem on the map in this country). Developed by two home brewers who took to Verzet, located near Waregem, to produce their creation on a commercial scale, this is again one of those beers with a story far more elaborate than the beer itself - but given that it comes from Verzet, my expectations are higher than average for this category. Shows a tendency to gush apparently, so be cautious when opening. Huge, foamy, crackling, egg-white, dense, bath foam- to cauliflower-like, plaster-lacing head filling the glass instantly, initially clear but quickly misty, peach blonde robe with 'old golden' glow and fine strings of visible sparkling. Aroma of white bread crust and slight sourdough, oxidized green apple slices, unripe hard peach, cucumber peel, watercress, straw, raw potato. Quite crisp onset, not too sweet for this style, with notes of unripe peach, green pear and oxidized apple, lively carbonated with sharpish minerally effects, continuing through a smooth pale maltiness, dryish and quite grainy, quite quickly bittered by grassy, peppery, floral hops, persisting for quite a long time and eventually becoming rather wormwoody, coating the mouth cavity with a dandelion- and witloof-ish bitterness - a bit more so than is typically the case in this style. Spicy elements appear throughout as well, mostly clove-like but not too sharply so; a yeasty breadiness lingers, bittered by the hops. Even a progressive craft brewery like Verzet needs to survive sometimes by accepting commissions - and though it is clear that intrinsically and conceptually this simple Belgian blonde has nothing to do with their own 'house' creations, they did make it a feisty little one, with a dry, quite sleek profile and an above average hop bitterness. Not bad, but as said, the story is a lot more convincing than the actual beer, in spite of it being well executed technically; at least I have learned something about the history of Waregem Koerse today.