Hell malziger, trocken herber Beginn. Wenig hefig, mild alkoholisch, kräutrig, moderat fruchtig nach Birne und Mango. Süffig, dunkler werdend, Nuancen von Karamell, getreidig. OK. 8/9/8/8/11/8

A clear golden yellow beer with a white head. Aroma of mid sweet fruity malt, yeast, apricot. Taste of tropical fruits, mango, apricot, mild bitterness.

33cl bottle from Carrefour market LA CHASSE (BRUSSEL). F: medium, white, quick gone. C: pale gold, light hazy. A: malty, spicy, bit bready, lemon peels, coriander, star anise touch. T: full malty base, light lemon, spicy mix, bready touch, at least good harmonic bitterness, soft carbonation, there were used lager yeast so not ale at all but not bad beer, enjoyed.

Spiced Belgian strong blonde (which to me is basically always synonymous with tripel to some degree, but I am sure many traditional Belgian beer drinkers will disagree on this), created for the catering business in Mons by Borinage, executed in the kettles of Ça Brasse Pour Moi. Slow gusher but with enough patience, it was no problem to open it without any significant loss. Audibly crackling, egg-white, thickly moussy, large-bubbled but tightly knit and very stable head resting atop a hazy orangey-peach blonde beer with ochre-ish edges - looking quite nice, in all. Aroma of spice bread and indeed some star anise (actually used), coriander seed (dito) and dried orange peel (also dito), over impressions of old peanuts, unripe peach, 'pepernoot' (all that spice again), apple peel, dried flowers, old 'herbes de Provençe' (strongly so), roses, faint hints of ginger powder, hand soap, ripe pear when warming up. Very fizzy onset, lots of 'foaming' carbonation but fine-bubbled enough to avoid painful stinging - yet still detracting from the fruity notes of dried apricot and unripe peach, remaining relatively restrained in sweetness; bready, bit peanutty and old-rusk-like maltiness, quite full, drenched in spicing with - luckily only light - spicy wryness towards the end from star anise and dried orange peel, while the coriander adds a touch of soapiness, and eventually gets the last word of those three added ingredients. The orange peel, however, brings some aromatic 'fraîcheur', while the star anise comes across as a bit astrigent in the end, amplifying the already quite confident, leafy, dried citrus peel-like, bit wormwoody hop bitterness. Some sweetish peach and pear fruitiness also linger in the end, while the alcohol remains well hidden. Quite a typical Belgian tripel, but with the spiciness taken up a notch and with a more confident, powerful hop bitterness than is averagely the case - a feature I have often observed in Walloon ales lately. Not too bad, in all, but I am quite sensitive to over-using the spice rack and this one at least flirts with it - and thus with imbalance as a result.