Tap at Luppolo Station, Rome-Italy. Cloudy golden bright, medium-low foam...little retention many drafts. Nose: sweet candy fruits, panettone, orange jam. Mouth: medium-high frizzy carbo, sugary, fruity with some (hidden) spiciness.

Tap at Castle Tap, Reading. 01/12/16Vague musky aroma. Apple skins. Hazy yellow. Creamy, if thin, white head. Initial alcohol hit which overpowers everything else. Bitter. Sour. Light bodied. Warming on a winter night.

Draft sample @ Haand fest ’16, Drammen. Shared with the Norwegian tasting crew. Couleur dorée, léger voile, col blanc. Arôme au nez fin épicé, qcq esters typiques belges, fruité avec un léger rétro houblonné noble conférant de petites notes vertes, fruitées. Palais est malté, pâle e pils, possible Munich, ester et levure belge. Pointe d’épices, sur palais ré&chauffant. Fruité rappelant l’abricot et pêche. Levure sur la fin approche d’un côté banane voire girofle épicé.

Bottle. Golden-straw, weak white foam. Aroma: white wine, fruits (peach, pineapple), malt, a little perfume. Taste: malt, dry sherry, wood, a little alcohol and hop bitterness.

Bottle as a New Year’s gift from Jan of Weerspannige Brouwers, cheers mate! Quite heavy gushing but manageable, I did not lose a lot of volume... Thick and frothy, egg-white, initially dense, lacing head thinning gradually; hazy peach blonde colour with somewhat ochre hue and a ’fog’ of dead yeast particles equally divided throughout the liquid. Aroma of dried orange peel, Grand Marnier, baker’s yeast, heavy cooked banana and banana bread (Hefeweizen-like!), mango, soap, butterscotch, canned apricot, sugared apple, white pepper, freshly cut sorrel, rhubarb, old cake, fairly strong clove-like phenols. Spritzy onset, a tad overcarbonated perhaps, with refreshing redcurrant sourishness, impressions of apple peel, banana and mandarin peel, supple body, yeasty spiciness playing over a background of caramelly and honeyish malt sweetness, bit phenolic but actually fitting into the whole quite well; white candi sugar sweetness is there but not overly so. Finish is malty, juicy and phenolic in the ’good’ (spicy) sense of the word, along with peppery hops with a nice, aromatic bittering quality, as well as residual yeastiness (a little bit ’meaty’ even) and, unexpectedly, warming, gin-like alcohol. Not the most refined Ducato beer I had, but certainly credible as a Belgian tripel (of the sweet side of the style), the ’spirit’ of which these Italians managed to capture quite well, though it does seem a bit more ’exotic’ than average. The flavour deScription on the label is very much to the point as well.

330 ml. bottle. BBF is unreadable. Hazy orange, small touch bigger white bubbles. Nose is overly heavy on esters, sweetish grain, dried orange peel, some dusty spices. Carbonation is a bit sparkling, rather heavy carbonation. Taste is dusty, esters, there is some slight vanilla sweetness, almost fish guts, phenolic, touch pepper, paper, dough phenolic apples. Technically aptly made but the more time passes the more I seem to dislike these kinds of phenolic, estery, grainy, sparkling Belgians. There is something about that just puts me off, there is some slight vanilla sweetness to this one that makes it slightly more interesting & there is nothing technically wrong with it. Acceptable let us say. It did feel a bit old to me, touch oxidized. It is named after a Bob Dylan song (one that is equally cute & silly for me) so that is nice.

Bananig hefiger Geruch und Antrunk. Mild herb, vollmundig, glücklicherweise wenig süß. Minimal trocken. Süffig, rund. 11/11/12/11//11

330 mml bottle tasted on the 05/05/2015. Floral and hoppy aroma for a nice hazy golden colour beer. Taste is very floral too with presence of malts and some caramel. Next one please!

Tap. Italian Job, Chiswick. Hazy gold. Film of lasting, white head. Medicinal clove, first off. Chewy, grainy wheat. Drinks full, smooth, warming, and fairly bitter. Some dryness on the finish. Manages to be big, but a bit one dimensional.