7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

2/IV/20 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: IX/2021 (2020-298)

Clear blond gold beer, big solid creamy off-white head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: somewhat soapy, some tropical fruits, citrus, grapefruit, malty touch. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice bitterness, good bitter start, citrus notes, refreshing, bit grassy, bit watery. Aftertaste: grapefruit, good bitterness, tropical fruits, mango, little resinous, good one!

7.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

The second beer by a small Ghent-based company dedicated to not beer, but mead (of which I tasted a few that were very interesting - not sure if any of them has made it to the commercial circuit so far, though); I guess the revenue of these beers, and at least the first one (Grizzly) proved successful in and around Ghent, serves to fund the mead-making, which is fine with me of course. An organic Indian pale lager according to the label so bottom-fermented at least in theory... Creamy, thick, mousy, tightly paper-lacing, bit irregular, eggshell-white, slowly breaking head on a misty straw blonde beer with warm 'old gold' hue and some lonely bubbles rising up here and there. Aroma of dried lime peel, lemon candy, unripe green mango, banana peel, straw bales, bread crust, starfruit, hints of dust, pear, minerals, faint soap note, dried apricots, camomile, linseed, dried rosemary. Crisp onset, fruity but in a cleanish way, hinting at sweet pear and apricot, halfripe banana and a dash of green apple with a very light sourish edge, lively carbonation but nowhere harshly stinging yet still adding a lot of minerality which in this case is very welcoming; supple body, smooth and lean with a still mineral-laced bread crumb-like maltiness, cereally as well, soon coloured yellow and green by quite expressive, even subtly tropical (green mango, starfruit) hoppiness, floral, spicy and crisp, depositing a medium long bitterness to the root of the tongue. The mineral effects are maintained even in the final stage, greatly contributing to the overall very quenching character of this beer. Feels lighter than 6% ABV even, I can imagine drinking one after the other of it in some outdoors café in Ghent on a summer afternoon. Elegant, more light-bodied than Grizzly and arguably 'cleaner', though the fruity and spicy effects of the saison yeast are clearly present; the hop aromatics are bright enough without becoming NEIPA-like tropical, with a very pleasant, drying bitterness more Belgian blondes should exhibit. Technically well done, though the combination of 'lager' and 'saison yeast' keeps puzzling me - I do not think of a saison yeast strain as bottom-fermented, so I assume the 'lager' part of this beer refers merely to a prolonged period of lagering, which does not technically make it an IPL (with all due respect for brewer's intent); and if this is the case, it feels like a bit of a pity to 'muffle' the features of a saison yeast by lagering the beer at low temperatures. Then again, if this is the choice that was made, who am I to argue with the brewer - so cheers Jorre, this is a fine and highly sessionable beer regardless of what it is!

7

Well done Jorre!