6.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

One of the many Maîtresses made locally by Gruut in Ghent so far - but a clean list of these beers is nowhere to be found so it is anyone's guess just exactly how many have been made so far. Anyway, this is a strong blonde with chili peppers apparently, thanks tderoeck for sharing! Off-white, medium thick, lacing, stable, very mousy head on a cloudy orange peach blonde beer with strings of sparkling clinging to the side of the glass. Rather weird aroma of peach, soggy brown bread, chicken broth-like oxidation, soaking wet cigarette tobacco, fresh basil leaves or fresh thyme, rusty iron, paprika powder, chewing gum, soap, tomato soup. Fruity onset, estery with banana, peach and red apple impressions, sourish edge accentuated by sharp and fizzy carbonation; soft, fluffy, bready malt body, rusk-like with a sweetish honeyish accent, a tad oxidized in the end, but then both a lively 'mint green' herbal accent (the basil and thyme effects from the nose) and a late but effective and unmistakable chili heat unfold, while only a very soft herbal bitterness is established and a sweetish bubblegummy accent lingers, everything tied together by warming, gin-like alcohol enhancing the chili heat element. Very herbal, indeed 'hot' thanks to the chilies, but in essence still a typically soapy and bubblegummy, estery Gruut beer - admittedly though, the very outspoken spicy character of this one bears witness of a somewhat more audacious and daring approach than the (also spiced or 'herbed') other Gruut beers, including most of the other Maîtresses I had to date. Weird, unmatching flavours, but an interesting one, and for that alone probably the best Gruut so far for me, however ephemeral it may be (these Maîtresses are generally brewed only once).