Gulden Craen (6%)

Sampled from bottle, road soda from Albert Heyn Rotterdam CS, after Kaapse BAF 2016. Straight from bottle. Sweet malts, coriander, cloves. Plasticcy. Medium sweet and light bitter. Medium body and average carbonation. Creamy feel. Herbal and plasticcy bitter finish. --- Beer merged from original tick of Gulden Craen on 21 Dec 2017 at 23:26 - Score: 6. Original review text: 3

Bottle from Albert Heijn, Warmond. Poured a clear medium amber with a thin broken white head. The aroma is sweet caramel malt hop. The flavour is moderate bitter with a dry yeast, grainy big hop bitter, light toothpaste palate. Medium bodied with average carbonation.

Bottle. Golden pour. Aroma of mild citrus, malt and grain. Easy taste of malt, caramel and some citric bitters. Not bad for De Leckere.

25cl Bottle from AH. Hazy golden colour, white head. Aroma of vegetables, light fruity, malty, hint of hops. Flavour is sweet, malty, bread, light honey, light floral, fruity, bitter finish. Light bodied. Better than the previous version.

Belgian style blonde with initially thick and frothy, intricately lacing, snow white head and clear to lightly misty ’old gold’ colour with vivid fizz, turning a deeper orangey-tinged peach with sediment. Aroma of fresh croissants, lots of ripe banana isoamylacetate (seemingly more so than before), grass, yellow grapefruit peel, nougat, dried flowers, green apple and apple cake, lemon zest, some vague iron shavings, breakfast cereals, cooked lemongrass somewhere. Soft fruity onset, pear-like main character with also a lot of banana, some apple peel and unripe peach, soft but effective carbo, grainy, subtly honeyish and bready maltiness with residual honeyish sweetness on top, slick and supple, slightly oily, very smooth mouthfeel but a little bit metallic as well at least in its earlier form, but less so nowadays; finishes with grassy, light peppery, floral hop bitterness but the malt sweetness and banana ester linger longer. Straightforward but pleasantly bready quencher with a subtle lemony-grapefruity twist to it somewhere, very enjoyable for a Belgian style blonde, I can name dozens of actual Belgian examples of this generic style which are far less refined; seems to have become more banana-estery, more ’rounded’ and sweet but also less metallic recently, which in this case is probably an improvement. Quite nice for what it is.

Bottle 300ml. @ home. [ As De Leckere Gulden Craen Blond ].ABV: 6.0%. Clear medium orange yellow color with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting to diminishing, white to off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, pale malt, moderate yeasty, yeast, bubble gum, cake - cookie dough, yougurt notes. Flavor is moderate sweet and light to light moderate bitter with a long duration, fruity - candy - pineapple, cake - cookie dough, yeasty. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20150525]

Bottle. Pours slight hazy dark golden with a slightly off white head. Aroma of sweet malt, grass, fruits and toffee. Flavor is over moderate sweet and light moderate bitter. Light medium bodied with moderate carbonation.

Fles 30cl thuis. Grapefruit, bloemig, fris bitter, hoppig. (9-2014).------.

Slightly hazy golden with medium white head. Lots of aromahops on the nose. Medium sweet malts, some nutty and cardboard touches, milk, light citrus, grapefruit peel. Medium bodied, nice carbonation. Not that bad, but doesn’t deliver what the nose promises.