6.8

Decent saison, a bit rye muddled. Not as crisp and dank as I’d like, a little too much bitterness. Online beergium

7.6

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

Cloudy somewhat murky medium amber colour, tall loose frothy white head, slowly diminishing, little adhesive, patchy lacing. Aroma sweet malt, rye, orange marmalade, honey, overripe fruit, caramel. Taste medium sweet and bitter, toasted malts, rye, fruity (orange, peach), honey notes, bit yeast. Medium body, oily texture, average carbonation, dry sweetbitter aftertaste, toasted malt, citrus peel, herbal notes. A good rich and nicely layered brew.

7.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Amber colour, medium carbonation. Rather yeasty with light fruity notes, medium bitter finish.

7

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

16/IV/20 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: 4/IV/21, B027T18APR19 (2020-338)

Clear orange beer, huge creamy to fizzy white head, unstable, dissipates eventually, little adhesive. Aroma: pretty oxidized, honey, orange peel, sweet impression, fruity touch, some caramel malts. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice bitterness, dry, bit spicy, hint of citrus, slightly malty, fruity, some pears. Aftertaste: good bitterness, bit herbal, dry, more bitterness, some banana peel, bit yeasty.

6.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

New Tartaruga beer (among a few other ones), a rye saison with honey. Bottle from Beergium. Huge, foamy, towering head, egg-white, dense, lacing and very mousy, slowly retreating and eventually opening but remaining stable, over a misty peach blonde beer with warm orangey tinge. Strong aroma of ripe banana and ripe pineapple (esters), carbon dioxide (like opening a bottle of strongly carbonized sparkling water), yellow raspberry jam, stewing turnips, honey indeed as well as nectar-rich wild flowers, freshly cut red apples as well as old dry apple cake, coriander seed, old bread crust, dried orange peel, dried thyme, hint of cloves, brown soap, linseed, something vaguely glue-like. Estery onset, banana but not in a disturbingly sweet or bubblegummy way, pineapple, red apple, peach, sweetish and sourish with the sourish aspect accentuated by very sharp, numbing, minerally and overly stinging carbonation (even for a saison); soft and somewhat soapy, bready malt bill with bread pulp- and dry cracker-like aspects, with the fruity esters still dancing on top - along with pronounced spicy phenols (thyme, clove, touch nutmeg) that, if they had been just a little bit stronger, would have become overly medicinal. The honey element adds little sweetness - it has fermented completely, as it tends to do in artisanal honey beers - but still makes its presence felt, in the form of a dry-vegetal, seed- and field flower-like aroma, supported by a soapy coriander seed flavour as well as a noble hop aroma of old dried 'herbes de Provençe' (with thyme in pole position) and camomile. The hops shape the finish in a leafy and spicy bitter way, long and resinous, quinine-, bitterroot- and dried old grapefruit peel-like in the end, with a drying and quenching effect, while apple-, banana- and pineapple-like esters keep pushing themselves forward. Dry, bready, crisp, very fizzy and floral with something of a meadow- or barnyard-like hint: this is a classically styled Belgian saison 'pur sang' in the vein of Saison Dupont, Saison de Pipaix or even Fantôme, that much is certain. Within that style, this is satisfying enough, but I must admit that the overcarbonation did bother me - it kept stinging till the very end and even for a classic style saison, after all a usually very strongly carbonated beer style, it became a bit too much, though admittedly it did do its job well in propelling the aromas forward. Not bad, in all, but perhaps looking backwards a bit too much, Tartaruga has produced more exciting and refreshingly 'modern' beers than this one.

7.2

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

33cl bottle from Malt Attacks beer store in Brussels. F: huge, off-white, very long lasting, big pressure after opening yet no gusher. C: orange gold, hazy. A: malty, sweet mellow fruity, caramel, bit spicy, orange peels touch, yeasty. T: malty, dry fruity, yeasty, bit herbal, spicy, grapefruits bitterness, higher carbonation, quite nice for the style, enjoyable beer.

7.3

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

Bouteille 33cl de Malt Attacks, BB 04/04/2021. Bottled 18/04/2019. Orangée, col épais crémeux blanc. Arôme offre un nez organique de miel assez plaisant sur un rétro malté plutôt dans une approche classique belge - dont pas mal de pils, le tout ponctué par des effluves de malt grillé-caramel. Des pointes d'agrumes percent en rétro et se font plus marquées avec qcq minutes d'ouverture - dont du pamplemousse. Palais alterne entre sécheresse de grains - pils, épicé et rondeur du seigle avec une douceur marquée de miel - qui tend presque à pousser la sensation de bouche un cran au dessus des 6%. Herbacé marqué en fin de bouche - distinct du Mosaic. Fini est sec herbacé, doux, finement épicé avec petite note de pamplemousse.