7.1

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Saison hopped with not one, but two 'historical' hop varieties, Loeren and Groene Belle; everybody knows that the Poperinge region has been cultivating hops for centuries, but it is far less known that the region around the city of Aalst in eastern Flanders also had a flourishing hop culture until the second World War, even with their own varieties, two of which are featured here. Quite unique in that sense, especially since both Loeren and Groene Belle were considered extinct until fairly recently, when living specimens were taken from agricultural institutes in Wallonia and Slovenia, respectively, and are now little by little (and so far only very locally) making a comeback in artisanal Belgian brewing - which, in view of the whole history of craft beer and its constant reviving of old and often forgotten beer traditions, seems to make perfect sense. Only 250 bottles (75 cl with crown cap and hangtag) of this 'historically hopped' beer were made apparently; mine came from the Hopduvel in Ghent. Slow but steady gusher, yet with the necessary patience and care, I managed to reduce the loss to a few centilitres. Very thick, audibly crackling, tightly cobweb-lacing, frothy, irregular, eggshell-white head on a hazy straw blonde beer with deep 'old gold' hue and strong, champagne-like sparkling; shifts to a dirty, 'muddy', brownish ochre as more sediment is added. Aroma of ripe pear, fresh lemonbalm, sugared lemon juice, banana, freshly baked white bread, warm cake, honey, persimmon, tulips, stewed pumpkin, damp straw, minerals - very recognizably Belgian, in all, but indeed with subtle hoppy notes that are quite distinct. Crisp onset, very sharply carbonated to the point where it becomes painful and distracts from the banana, ripe pear, red apple and halfripe peach notes provided by esters; supple bready maltiness, sweetish but not overly so, with a clear soapy edge from the used wheat. Spicy and fruity yeasty aspects dance on top, the first hinting at clove and even - very faintly - liquorice, the latter at (mostly) pear, while the Groene Belle and the Loeren do their work, releasing an increasing, yellow-greenish hop character, a bit earthy and providing relatively gentle, grassy bitterness that will stick a bit to the root of the tongue without exaggerating in bitterness - but not before it has exuded the most genuinely floral aromatic character I ever had in a beer: nothing exotic, just a very convincing retronasal effect of sweetclover, white dead-nettle and goldenrods flowers. Malty and yeasty effects linger on in this quenching, very easily drinkable Belgian blonde, with perhaps a tad too much residual sweetness to fully qualify as a classically correct 'saison', even if effervescence, 'souplesse', minerality, yeastiness and 'quenchingness' are spot on. Solid enough, in all, but of course the importance in this one lies in those utterly floral, 'rural' hops, evoking the hop fields of Aalst of a century or more ago. In that sense, I would consider this a culturally important beer on the Belgian beer map: after this enormous wave of American and other New World hops and imitations of them in e.g. Germany and Poland, I think the rediscovery of old, forgotten hops from a traditional beer country like Belgium could not have come at a better moment on the timeline of beer history. This Keun interpretation shows these old Aalst hop varieties in a classic way that will go down easily with any 'serious' Belgian consumer, but I am sure that both these varieties can offer a lot more and make quite a unique contribution to craft beer development in Belgium (and perhaps even abroad) if further refined and 'amplified'. Curious to see what Groene Belle and Loeren may have in store for us if ever they become applied by some or other craft brewer in a more 'adventurous' way...

7

Imported from untappd on 02-05-2020

6.8

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Bottle @ home. Hazy blond colour, white foam. Light sweet, bit malty, some herbal notes. Light bitter finish. Ok, nothing special.

7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Imported from my RateBeer account as KEUN Groene Belle Saison (by Microbrouwerij KEUN):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.5/5

24/XI/18 - 75cl bottle from the brewery @ AV Gentse Biervereniging (Klaas' place), BB: n/a - (2018-1720) Thanks to Bierridder_S for sharing the bottle!
Clear blond beer, big creamy off-white head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: lots of banana, bit yeasty, fruity touch, some peaches and marzipan. MF: very lively carbon, medium body. Taste: some citrus, little bitter, yeasty, grassy touch, quite some banana, soft bitterness, little sweetish. Aftertaste: yeasty, bit hoppy, some citrus notes, more of than banana, bitter, some marzipan, little oxidized maybe?

7

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

F: medium, off-white, quickly diminishing. C: murky gold, hazy. A: malty, spicy, fruity, grassy, orange, floral, yeasty. T: malty backbone, grassy, fruity, yeasty, floral, medium body and carbonation, not bad for the style, enjoyed, sample from bottle shared with Bierridder_S and his friends @ 25th Bierhappening on Saturday 13/10/2018 in Zottegem.

8.5

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9

28/08/2018 - 33cl glass from a 75cl bottle @Keun tasting room. Het etiket was nog altijd niet klaar (the label was still not ready). Very glad to finally visit because only a few bottles were left of this one after the 2018 Feniks & Friends festival. Apparently the beer was well appreciated there because all remaining bottles were bought. Luckily Gert kept some for tasting purposes in the tasting room. Clear dark yellow with fine creamy white head. Nose is malts, hops, spices. Taste is malts, nice gentle bitterhops, little spice, medium dry. Damn this is a very nice combination of malts & hops. Nothing too much, nice balanced but tempting enough but it's not the first time Gert managed to do this in my opinion. I'm still a fan! For me one of his nicest beers.