Decent white head and a bit of a foggy orange body. Nice aroma of funky nailpolish, hay, lemon. Flavour is watery leather, chewy rotting bread, dried grass. Medium finish. Reliable gueuze but trending towards middling.

Lys brun klar med fingerhøyt lett hvitt skum. Lukter syrlige epler og bæreddik. Smaken er syrlig, nesten sur. Rips og sitrus. Middels lang. Tørr. Lillestrøm ølfestival-Klimt

33cl bottle at Õlleteek, Tallinn. Slightly hazy golden with a nice and dense, white head. Fruity, funky and slightly yeasty with notes of sour berries, barnyard and hints of honey and malt. Balanced and complex, a perfect marriage between tripel and gueuze. Delicious, refreshing and very enjoyable.

330ml bottle. Pours a hazy, golden orange with a large, frothy, long lasting, white head that laces. Sour, citrus fruit aroma with straw and brettanomyces. Sweet, acidic flavour of citrus fruit, malt, yeast and barnyard with a crisp, tart, dry finish. Medium body with an oily texture and average carbonation. Not bad.

0.33 l bottle from belgiuminabox, bottled in April 2013. Clear, golden amber with a medium large, frothy, almost stable, white head. Sweetish-sourish, fruity, minimally funky aroma of vanilla, honey, rhubarb, white grapes, wood and hints of peach. Sweetish-sourish, slightly fruity taste of honey, vanilla, clove, white grapes, rhubarb and wood, followed by a medium long, slightly tart, yeasty-spicy finish. Medium body, spritzy, slightly astringent and effervescent mouthfeel, average carbonation. Good blend that works well and is nicely balanced. Definitely worth trying!

BOTTLE 33 CL. Almost clear golden, off-white head. Both, the aroma and the taste are a combination between a classic fruity, honeyish and slightly alcoholic tripel, and a moderately tart funky lambic. Both come in waves one after another. Smooth body. A good combination, I would say.

The follow-up to Vicardin since 2012. The original version was a blend of Vicaris Tripel with the filtered, white-label Girardin Gueuze (at least that is what the brewer told me at the time, when he had just launched it and won a prize with it from a Zythos Beer Festival), but the cooperation with Girardin stopped and this ’new’ version is blent with lambiek by Boon. This concept is not as new as it may seem: lambic has long been used in Belgium to blend with other beers in order to get a sourish ’versnijbier’ and this is an application of the same principle, though these old ’versnijbieren’ were usually not tripel-based. This one has a very stable, medium sized, off-white head laying a thick lacing on the glass and overlying a bright, deep ’old gold’ coloured beer with vivid sparkling, cloudy with deposit. Aroma, as promised, indeed shows both tripel maltiness and geuze tartness, with impressions of raw rhubarb, green apple peel, clear gooseberries, white bread, crushed sorrel, dried weeds, straw, peach, dust, earth, powder sugar, kiwi and a faint banana ester hint; also a bit of cardboard, although the bottle is still long before its expiry date, but it does not really bother me; there is a horseblanket funkiness and even a vague woodiness somewhere too, but I think it is not much use trying to search for the pure lambic characteristics here, this concoction will be more rewarding if simply enjoyed the way it is. Crisp and spritzy in the mouth, high but refined effervesce with a somewhat ’champagne-like’ mouthfeel as in a decent geuze, softly sourish, lots of green fruits, apple, berries, unripe plums, lime accent with very refreshing effect, minerals, hint of soapy wheat but mostly bready, soft barley sweetishness, ending in lingering sourness but still very gently so, paired with the continuing bready malts and a deep, late but unmistakable, earthy hop bitterishness, providing only background bitterness but little aroma, which is probably best in a beer mixed with geuze. I have been skeptical about this since it was still Vicardin, but in re-tasting it now, I have to admit the combination works; this is indeed a very refreshing, spritzy, appetizing apéritif kind of beer, which I would recommend, not just for what it is, but perhaps also as a stepping stone to the different ’real’ sour beer styles to people who have not ventured beyond the familiar Belgian ales yet. Nice, and of about the same quality level as its predecessor - there is a somewhat other nose to it due to the change in lambic, but in this concept, this does not make much difference, I believe. A side by side tasting of this with a vintage bottle of the original Vicardin would prove interesting in order to determine this, but from sheer memory, I cannot really pinpoint the difference.

bottle oro un filo velata buona schiuma discreta persistenz naso leggermente speziato discreta nota maltata leggero legno un filo aspro bretta cosi in bocca acidità controllata discreto amaro

On tap @Buskers Pub (Rome). Pours cloudy light amber with a medium and persistent white head. Aroma of wild yeasts, hay, cellar, malty notes, esters. Flavour is malty, sweet with a sourish end... strange! Medium body, medium to light carbonation. Interesting...

0,33L bottle (from Drink Shop?, Tallinn). Pours golden with off-white head. The head stays forever. Aroma is sour and sweet, floral, fruits, acidic notes. Flavor is sour, sweet and bitter, fruits, citrus, lemon, acidic notes, and spices. Finish has some dry bitterness and sourness. Overall: very nice brew.