4.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 3.5 | Flavor - 3.5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4.5

Lemon juice flavoured pale lager - not sure I had that before actually, at least not in this form - from a brewery in the Lot department in southwestern France. Thanks to Craftmember for the bottle! Egg-white, even- but quite large-bubbled, membrane-lacing, stable head with dented edging, on a crystal clear, 'metallic' old gold coloured beer with rusty-orangey tinge, with very fierce, almost champagne-like sparkling; turning very faintly misty in the end. Aroma of indeed lemon but in a very artificial, hand soap-, detergent- ('Dreft Citroen') and lemonade-like way, ruling supreme over much more subdued notes of old dry bread crust, dusty old grains in an old jute bag, dried flowers, crushed corn, straw and a faint whiff of rusty iron, unambiguously indicating the beginning of oxidation. Sweetish but somewhat 'dead' onset, neutral lager-like but in a bad way - and of course immediately overwhelmed by this lemon juice flavouring, which again takes on a quite unpleasant, bit chemical and industrial, perfumey form; fizzy carbonation adding a lot of minerally effect, accentuating the inherent but mild sourish effect of the lemon juice. Slick, grainy, thinnish body with a slight edge of old bread crust and a vague metallic 'zing' to it, gaining a bit more character in the end when weak but noticeable yeast effects come in, adding a bit more breadiness. Meanwhile this ascorbic lemon effect keeps adding a sourness best comparable with the citric acid used in certain forms of candy (Napoleon Sweets), laying on top of the beer, like the citric acid in powder form sprinkled on or put inside such candy. The oxidation effect, in a 'rusty iron'-like way, returns retronasally, a bit stronger than it was orthonasally, so clearly this beer is past its prime, but then I cannot imagine it was any better when young... A light, floral, bit earthy hop bitter note does show up in the end, trying to "save the furniture" as they say in Flanders - but there is not much to be saved here, and the only thing that remains after the last sip, is that annoying lemon juice effect. There must be an audience for this, mostly rather young I imagine, in summer when temperatures in that part of France become heavy to bear - but I will certainly never be part of that audience. This is another gimmicky pale lager-with-an-extra in the vein of Desperados (also a French invention, mind you), albeit in a far less industrial, more 'believable', smaller-scale way.

3

Botella de @La Houblonnière, Toulouse. 08/12/2019. Color amarillo corona de espuma blanca escasa aromas cítricos, limón, sabor cítrico jarabe. Floja.

4.3

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4

Bottled. Cloudy golden, mid sized head. Sheer lemon aroma. Mid sweet with light body and rounded mouthfeel. Simplistic lemon concentrate flavour. Low bitterness.

6

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

Fles 33cl in Puybrun. Licht bier met citroensmaak. Lekker fris. Wel veel citroen en weinig bier. (8-2011).