6.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

One of several beers by 4Pajot called 'Victorius', this one being the low ABV version flavoured with moringa leaves (a first in beer for me...). Thick, foamy, snow white, bath foam-like, membrane-lacing, slowly dissipating head on a hazy apricot blonde beer with somewhat 'milky' appearance, turning darker and more ochre-peach with sediment. Aroma of banana-flavoured bubblegum, freshly cut slices of peach, white bread, strong ethereal and herbal moringa (reminiscent of bayleaf, kaffir lime, green tea and ginger but distinct nonetheless), equally strong coriander seed, dusty dried cut flowers, roses, raw parsnip, fried egg, clove, damp straw, vague hint of manure in the end. Spritzy onset, very sharply carbonated with very pronounced minerality, strong banana ester with bubblegummy effect, notes of green pear and unripe pineapple, soapy-wheaty and bready middle with clear rye bread spiciness to it (rye effectively having been used here apparently), thin honeyish residual sweetness on top but nothing disturbingly sweet at all, quickly aromatized by both soapy coriander and herbal moringa, blossomy, tea-, vaguely cardamom- and bayleaf-like and, as bayleaf would probably do as well, adding an extra layer of 'green plant leaf'-like bitterness to an already well-developed floral hop bitterness. Some bready yeastiness and soapy accents lingering. Somewhat bizarre, this moringa effect is anything but common, but does seem to fit in a Belgian style (multi-grain) ale, adding a whole layer of 'herbalness' I wasn't quite expecting; original, admittedly, but I still don't like overly herbal spice / herb beers, I'm afraid.