Bonaire Blond

The only Bonairian pale beer with character as it boastfully seems to describe itself, a top fermented golden ale flavoured with lime and Aloe vera (a succulent plant often associated with cosmetics, but also used sometimes in certain tropical beverages, as well as yoghurt and so on). Thanks to tderoeck for this country tick - according to RateBeer's often deviant view on geopolitics at least, because the island of Bonaire of course belongs to the Netherlands... Quite a strong gusher, which does not come as a total surprise, for an ale made on a tropical island without a real beer tradition - but with a lot of patience, I managed to reduce the loss to a minimum. Quite thick, mousy, irregular, egg-white, disparately shred-lacing, altogether stable head on an immediately clouded, deep peach blonde beer with somewhat brownish-amberish tinge; bits of dead yeast sink to the bottom of the tasting glass. Aroma of banana bread, dried peach, plain wort, iron shavings, indeed a whiff of lime zest but very volatile and gone seconds after pouring, soap (could well be the Aloe vera!), dry bird seed, apple peel, soaking wet brown cardboard, green and unripe plant husks, spoiled lettuce, dry sponge, old dusty 'herbes de Provençe' that have lost most of their fragrance, turnip stew, some vague background solvents. Fruity onset, rather restrained in sweetness, dried banana, dried peach and dried apricot accents, vague note of apple peel, fizzily carbonated (very fizzily in fact - bubbling away on the tongue, but luckily in small bubbles so not coming across as overly harsh). Soft, fluffy body, not very 'full', very soapy on the edges which, again, may or may not represent the Aloe vera, which I cannot identify in any other reasonable way here; lime is not recognizable in the flavour at all, unless of course is accounts for a late, dull bitterness in the finish, very earthy, herbal and 'dark green plant'-like, not seeming to come only from hops, while slight traces of 'metallicity', vague retronasal solvents and strong soapiness linger about. Feels very bready and even wort-like as well, with a sweetish yeasty banana ester aspect lingering all the way at the back. Well, at least this 'tropical' brewery offers something else than the ubiquitous pale standard lagers which are often the only type of beer coming from countries without beer traditions that have not found any connection with the global craft beer movement yet. The end result is not very representative either, considering this bottle is aged and well past its prime. I can imagine this being a lot better when fresh - and chilled, to enjoy somewhere at Bonaire's beautiful beaches, but in this form, it is technically flawed, unbalanced, unpleasantly soapy and feeling 'unfinished' as well, I'm afraid. At least more 'original' than expected.

Many thanks for this beer to Nisse666. My new Country (149). Not far to 150. Piwo chyba najlepiej wyglada ze wszystkich egzotykow. W lagerowej szklance grolscha jest pelno piany i trwala niczym stu letni dab kolo Resursy. lekko mgliste, jasno bursztynowej barwy. Smak wodnisty, aloes z witaminami, theraflu i tego typu proszki na gardlo, karmelowosc i toffi. troche tez posmaku trawy cytrynowej, dziwactwo smakowe, ale fajnie ze chociaz jakos dobrze to wyglada przyzwoicie w szklance.