Sample @Borefts Beer Festival 2018, day 2 with [Zlotta/Sjogro/Maakun/Svartvit].licht geel/gouden met witte kraag. aroma van hout en stro, paardendeken, stal, mout, smaken zijn matig tot redelijk zuur, hout, redelijk droog, beperkt, glad, maar toch best wel ok

Sampled from tap at Borefts 2018. Hazy, orangeish amber with a white head. Sweetish, sourish, gently fruity aroma of peach, passion fruit and some lemon. Minimally sweet, quite sour, gently fruity taste of peach, lemon, passion fruit and some vinegar, followed by a medium long, fairly tart finish. Medium body, fairly astringent mouthfeel, soft carbonation. Nice!

Borefts day 2. Hazy dark golden with no head. Sour grain, sweet and sour dried apricot, grapes. Moderate sweet and bitter and sour. Medium body and soft carbonation.

Bottle from eebria. Amber colour with a thin off white head. Aroma has a fruity and berry tart fruit. Taste light sour. Medium body.

Rocky white head left a froth on a hazy dark orange coloured, finely carbonated body. Sour citrus, orange & Belgian yeast aroma. Medium bodied, prickly over the tongue with a smooth back. Belgian yeast, sour citrus, peach & calcium tastes. Alvinnes's own yeast adds to the uniqueness of the tastes.

Bottle. Golden, foggy, strong white foam. Aroma: very sour and quite wild, hay and old cheese, specific.Taste: sour, lemon and citrus, some savagery, tart, knit, very strange, weird.

One of the more 'classic' sour ales by Alvinne, in existence since four years now; from an older bottle bought at Gedeelde Vreugde in Sint-Niklaas as a means of catch-up, since I seem to have missed this one in previous years. Quite violent gusher - it took a lot of patience and 'Fingerspitzengefühl' to open this while reducing the amount of beer loss; a reminiscence of Alvinne's old problems I guess. Towering high, coarse, irregular, egg-white head quickly reduced to some loose patches, over a misty, deep and warm orange-hued peach blonde beer. Aroma initially very sharp, apple vinegar, slowly softening to reveal subtler impressions of sour white grapes, unripe nectarine, artisanal cider, gooseberry jam, chalk, soggy white bread, dusty old cupboard, old white wine, bread crust, hints of raw radish, sweat, rainwater, sandpaper and a very slight onset of rusty oxidation. Crisp, sour onset, sour grape impression first and foremost but hinting at gooseberry, old apples, raw rhubarb and unripe nectarine as well, with a sweetish core as is usually the case in Alvinne sours, providing softness and balance; finely tingling carb, supple, tad vinous mouthfeel. Bread crust- and slightly caramelly maltiness, sweetish and soft in its nature but dried by the overall tartness, which remains refreshingly citric and crisp without descending into overdone 'vinegariness'. Some drying wood tannins in the end, a tad 'dusty' and powdery, with crisp and fruity sourness lingering beyond that, eventually merging with an earthy yeast note, as well as something weirdly chalky. The gushing is a technical and practical issue here, obviously, but having tasted a lot of Alvinnes lately, this to me is a nice - if not nostalgic - reminder of how their ventures in sour ale world began; a bit uncontrollable and something of an unguided projectile, but pointing straight forward to the greatness they would achieve in this particular field a few years onwards (i.e. today). It was a very pleasant experience to look back into Alvinne's sour ale past - even if this Omega, Sigma and Phi trio were far from their first experiments in the field - and I must say that apart from that gushing and the slight hint of onsetting oxidation, I enjoyed this very much, even more so than I did the Sigma and Phi years ago. This beer was, however, far from the last letter in the alphabet of Alvinne's sour ale expertise.

Bottle. Hazy golden. Aroma: nice banana. Acidity, earthy notes, yeast. Light to medium body. Moderatly sour taste. Very tart, earthy. Very interesting.

330ml bottle from Vanuxeem. Pours a hazy golden amber, thin off-white head. Aroma is fresh orange citrus, tart funk, sherbet. Taste is crisp, sour, lactic, sugary with pleasant fruity apricot / orange flourishes. Good sour edge, not overly complex but still enjoyable.