6.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Rubbens, so far having ventured in classic Belgian ale styles (after and parallel to a much longer history of liquor distillation), now surprises with this peach- and pepper-flavoured kettle sour, something I never saw coming from them... Steinie bottle from the local Delhaize supermarket in Zele, where the Rubbens company originated. Snow white, thin and loose, open and dissolving 'head' over a near-clear yellow golden robe with olive-greenish tinge. Weird aroma of lemon-scented cleaning product, peach-scented body lotion or perfume, over subtler hints of dry green peppercorns, apple slices, white bread dough, fruit yoghurt. Softly and straightforwardly sourish onset, a bit lime-like, superseded by a peachy sweetness with rather artificial character; lively carb, smooth body. Cereally core under ongoing simple sourishness and peach sweetness, lactic in an almost 'industrial yoghurt'-like way, with a green apple-ish side too; the pepper acts oddly cheesy more than spicy, and otherwise does hardly anything at all. Very soft sourness, soapiness (or that typical Berliner Weisse-like chalkiness perhaps) and this perfumey peachy sweetness quickly fade in the end. A very strange creation if you ask me - nothing like I was expecting, a bit artificial, very soapy and perfumey and hardly delivering on either (real) peach or pepper, but I guess one could theoretically get used to this concoction after a while...