Pours a clear, thick lookin' clear darker gold. Not much head. Scent is raw, green and fairly intense coffee beans. medium loud overall, but the other aspects are definately overpowered by the coffee. Taste is quite fullbodied, roasty ( mild ) from the coffee, not as 'green' here. Bit more elegant than an Imperial stout is. Lactose is very mild, but no doubt helps create the thickness. Mild bitterness. noticable alcohol. Well made Coffee Blonde Ale

330ml bottle. Cloudy, amber colour with average, thick, creamy, moderately lasting and lacing, off-white head. Spicy aroma, hints of coffee, coffee beans, cocoa, a touch of vanilla. Taste is sweet-ish malty, slightly spicy, notes of coffee, coffee beans, white coffee, some cocoa, a touch of vanilla; minimally warming, alcoholic finish. Creamy texture, smooth and soft palate, fine, mildly prickly carbonation. Nice composition, good balance, maybe a tad too sweet.

Bottle from Etre Gourmet, Grez-Doiceau, Belgium, Saturday 22nd August 2020 listening to Better Oblivion Community Centre - (self titled album) cooking a King Prawn Curry with homemade Nan Bread and Mushroom Bhajis. Pours amber, actually dark amber, looks clear with just a little chill haze and a white head. Earthy, nutty nose with a little woody edge. Very sweet taste, a little boozy, fruity, a touch nutty in the mouth, smooth a light creaminess, some tangy milk chocolate. This is very good which impresses me as I am not normally a fan of these white stouts.

Two beloved and notably progressive Belgian craft breweries presenting the - to my knowledge - second 'white stout' in the country (after BBP's True & False), stressing the 'stout' part by turning it into an 'imperial milk stout' by adding lactose, next to other flavourings (cocoa nibs and vanilla). To me this whole 'white stout' joke was never funny to begin with and I was silently hoping that this silliness had died a silent death by now, but this is Atrium plus Totem, so I could not resist buying a bottle to have a taste of it. At first medium thick but thinning to eventually disappearing, slightly irregular, quickly opening, off-white ring for a head (along with some flat patches in the middle), near-clear deep amber-glowing orange blonde robe with fine but numerous strings of enthusiastic sparkling. Aroma of biscuit soaked in brandy, vanilla, honey liqueur, white chocolate, candied orange peel, fig, caramel, yellow raisins, milk powder, cashew nuts, honey-glazed carrots, wood glue, peaches in 'jenever', ferrous water. Sweet onset with sourish edge, cleanly fruity with notes of fig, candy apple and candied apricot, medium carbonation, smooth and rather resinous, eventually vinous mouthfeel; a clear alcohol heat is noticeable from the start. Slick biscuity maltiness, hard-caramelly and a tad hazelnutty, sweet with a slight bitter edge but more from ever more obnoxious alcohol than anything else; clear vanilla appears retronasally, while the cocoa nibs, combined with the caramelized malt sweetness, adds a faint whiff of white chocolate. The lactose maintains a dominating sweetness all the way through, but its creaminess is seriously hampered by strongly burning alcohol, becoming very brandy-like long before its time and making for an overly boozy, astringent ending phase, in which vanilla, white chocolate and candied fruit elements linger. Hops remain primarily structural and play no important part here. Desserty sipper for sure, but more a flavoured barley wine of sorts than anything even remotely stout-like; it is not because you put typical pastry stout flavours into a strong blonde beer, that you automatically end up with a 'white stout'. I do not think this creation was a very good idea - too bad, because I love Atrium and I admire Totem, but in a good collab (not a very common phenomenon in my experience), the sum of one and one is three and that certainly is not the case here for me. Sweet and overly boozy (even harshly so in the end) - with, importantly, the side note that 'white stout' does not exist and should not exist. Reminds me a lot of Hoppin' Frog's The Frog Abides - and suffers from the same silliness and uselessness, but even more so from overt booziness. Have a point for being 'special', but otherwise this is not my cup of tea, I'm afraid. Sincerely sorry Valéry and Klaas!

Bouteille 33cl, BB 05/2023, lot# 008/20.
Ambrée, col fin blanc-cassé.
Arôme offre un bouquet doux de vanillé avec rétro de lactose, retrouve un peu plus en retrait un malté grillé avec impression de noix écrasées et un côté chocolat blanc.
Palais est malté grillé, touche de café avec une petite douceur de vanille qui revient en retrait.
Touche verte houblonnée en retrait et un léger retour de sucre résiduel en fin de bouche. Amertume via les houblons qui reste fine, le tout est collant aux lèvres avec un retour grillé/café en fin de bouche.