After missing out on the 2024 edition of this long-standing series of green hop ales by De Ranke, I was not going to skip the 2025 one, bottled in October last year so now ten months old. Thick and frothy, foamy, eggshell-white, coarse, fluffy and rocky head, lacing in 'Brugse kant' and slowly thinning over an initially near clear, warm golden robe with pale orangey glow and some thin strings of visible sparkling, turning misty and more deeply peachy further on to even a murky beige in the very end. Noble hops meet the nose from half a yard away, dominating impressions of dried chamomille, tulips, white bread dough, raw turnip, lots of young wormwood leaf, grapefruit zest, parsley, unripe peach, wet nutmeg, hard pear, tonic water, touch 'herbes de Provençe', straw. Spritzy onset, strongly stinging carb detracting a bit from the fruitiness, which, though not sweet, is certainly there - as in hard, unripe fruit (peach, pear, apple); minerally carbonation pierces through a very bready core, pale malt of course but also yeast, with clove- and nutmeg-like phenols here and there. The overall dryness is amplified by the hops at an early stage, coming in with robust bitterness in a herbal and 'meadowy' way (think bitter weeds like mugwort, yellow rocket or tansy), eventually becoming peppery, grapefruit peel- and tonic water-like, stretching out into the finish very extensively - making said finish go on forever. Yeasty breadiness lingers as well, but the hops are, as it ought to be in this series of course, the star of it all, in an earthy, very 'European', noble and tonic-y way. I love a good old-fashioned bitter blond the Belgian way - De Ranke's own XX Bitter not being far away here - and I have enjoyed this series many times, in varying ages and conditions, but every iteration is always something new. This 2025 edition, in that sense, has its own character, seemingly even a bit more bold than many of the ones that preceded it - if only I could obtain the 2024 edition I missed, for the sake of comparison... Who knows, I may still stumble upon it, but the power of the hops will probably have waned a bit by then - which cannot be said of this ten month old 2025. Love it, and love De Ranke.

Bottled 750ml. -at Ambasada Zagreb, shared with Marko. Unclear golden coloured, medium sized off-white head, fruity and mild yeasty nose. Sweetish malty, fruity, light yeasty, bit herbal and mild earthy with rather bitter finish.

0.75l bottle, shared with Ogi at Ambasada. Clearish dark amber body really (unless you dump the yeast shot in), off-white, thick big head. Fun aroma, caramel, orange candy, floral and herbal notes. Remarkably uninspired taste then - bit herbal and floral, hoppy, some phenols, light maltiness, bitterish finish, a bit limp. Okay, had better De Ranke beers.

Sampled from bottle at home. Yellow color, small white head. Aroma and flavor are malts, typical Belgian hop aroma, lightly green hops, a little bit of a dusty edge, decently bitter. As expected.