6.5

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

New Belgian ‘streekbier’ – everybody has a contracted beer these days, it seems – named after a small village near Aarschot, brewed at Anders. On the market since last year but very limitedly so. Snow white, thick and frothy, tightly membrane-lacing, stable head over a lightly hazy, pure yellow-golden blonde beer with fierce sparkling, misty with sediment. Aroma of unripe banana, wet white paper, coriander seed, pear, raw pineapple, soggy sandwiches, plaster, raw potato, jute bags, wodka, chewing gum. Cleanly fruity onset, banana, some green apple, hard pear and raw pineapple notes, bubblegummy accent but not too much, minerally and souring carbonation, very lively; slick pale malt sweetish body, white bread pulp, cereally, with lingering banana ester and eventually strong coriander spiciness drenched in ‘jenever’-like alcohol; a green apple-like note lingers. Something in between ‘ordinary’ Belgian blonde ale and Duvel-inspired ‘edelbier’; correct, but very uninspired in itself, though I can see this functioning commercially on the local market of non-too-geeky beer drinkers.