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

It seems that every artisanal Walloon brewery needs a strongish 'ambrée' in their range and this is the contribution made to that tradition by two hobby brewers (Jérome Schenck and Franck Maka), realized commercially by the great Brasserie Minne... Medium thick, off-white, sparsely lacing, irregularly edged, mousy head, slowly showing gaps over an initially clear, pure rosey-orange blonde beer with indeed amber tinge turning into a more 'pure', misty amber with the sediment added, perturbed by strings of sparkling rushing upwards in the middle. Aroma of ripe peach, banana bread, cashew nuts, violets, honey liqueur and honey-coated peanuts, canned pineapple, dry biscuit, soapy coriander seed, candied carrots, sweet red apple, thyme, orange zest and orange water, dry straw, raw parsnip, gin, hand soap. Sweet onset, banana ester mingled with candied peach, apricot, red apple and sugared pineapple impressions, very light sourish edge, medium carbonation, some light minerally effects; smooth-edged, quite 'full' body, a tad resinous. Peanutty, caramelly maltiness, slick and sweetish with a honeyish edge and a slightly bitterish toasty tail, but also some metallic accents here and there; ends with a pleasant, yet light-hearted floral hop bitterness that lingers medium long, but the maltiness prevails, along with remnants of the banana ester and honeyish residual sugars - yet nothing too cloying. Coriander seed provides a dull, soapy spicy aspect that mingles with the hops, while the alcohol is noticeable as a warming afterglow, with a somewhat 'jenever'-ish colour to it. This may or may not be your preferred style, it is still popular enough in Wallonia, almost like the tripel style in Belgium in general, and this is certainly not the worst stab at it - streamlined, cleanish but still yeasty enough to offer some relief, sweet but not overly so, coriandered but in a way that matches quite well with the hops (even if it could just as well have been omitted for me). Not really my cup of tea, but in this genre this is not badly done, even if it pales by most of Minne's own creations, of course...