De Maeght Van Gottem

Bottled, gusher warning. Amber colour, rich off-white fluffy head. Aroma is fruity, caramelly, nice floral notes. Flavour is quite similar. A nicely hoppy Belgian ale. Pleasant.

26th May 2015
Mild gusher! Hazy gold beer, decent pale cream colour head. Something of a surprise when a whole hop cone popped out! Palate is airy, semi dry and mildly crispy. Thin malts, mildly sweet. Touch of spicy yeasty twang. Modest floralness and mild citrus and hop spice. Light semi dry finish. Not bad.

Fles 33cl thuis. 6,5%. Dry hopping in de fles. Flink bitter, hop, droog. Veel koolzuur. Spuit de fles uit. (12-2014).

Bottle from Wallington Beer Fest. Crazy explosive gusher with a whole hop exploding out the bottle. The nose is soft, doughy, spicy, creamy, grassy, floral and some soapy citrus. The taste is crisp, raw bitterness, doughy, spicy, floral, grass and soap with a dry finish. Medium body, high carbonation and foamy mouth-feel. Gushing and hop cone are a bit gimmicky, but the beer itself ain’t bad.

Hoppy ale in the literal sense of the word, because this is bottled with an actual hop cone inside. Notorious gusher (intentionally so, a rarity!), due to which the hop cone usually is driven out of the bottle - a playful gimmicky effect a hophead like myself can only condescendingly smile at. The head I eventually captured, was very thick and rocky, sticky, yellowish and stable; the beer itself a cloudy peach blonde. Aroma dominated by the ’green’ and resinous effect of the hop cone, with a vegetable, spicy hoppiness, under which more subtle hints of peach, orange zest, melon, caramel, pineapple and cheese are present. Fresh fruity and citrussy taste, light and smooth, with the expected fresh and green, powerful, dry peppery, sticky, long hop bitterness finishing the palate. I enjoyed this very much, a kind of direct forerunner to the hops revival in Belgian beer culture; when I first tasted it, in late 2005, the label was not yet finished...

Bottle at home in London - sourced from Ales by Mail. Gusher! I mean, even the stock image is gushing. Pours murky gold with a few hop leaves floating about (most of the cone flew out with the initial gush) and a creamy white head. The aroma has some pale, doughy bread malts, hints of yeast, floral hops. Medium sweet flavor with some alcohol, ripening apples, yeast, candi sugar, bitter grass. Medium bodied with fine carbonation. Grassy bitter finish with some raw alcohol burnt, more pale and bready malts, some wheat, yeast, plastic, white grape. Not a big fan.

Bottle @ Michaels. Heavy gusher. Pours slightly hazy golden with a white head, heavy floaties. Aroma of malt, grain, light yeast, grassy hops, little citrus. Flavor malt, grainy, yeast, grassy hops, citrusnotes. Medium body, lively carbonation. 210614

The beer itself is a Belgian blond, with more hops than usual. But the real cool thing is the hopcone they put in every bottle. I comes out when you open the bottle, giving the beer a fresh touch of hop. Very special.