33cl bottle from Carrefour market @ in Tervuren near Brussels. F: big, snow-white, good retention. C: blonde, light hazy. A: malty, citrus, banana, grapes, green apples, bit herbal. T: full malty base, banana, pears, spicy, bit herbal, grapes, toast, bit honey, medium to high carbonation, good, enjoyed.

28/VIII/21 - 33cl bottle from Willems (Grobbendonk), shared @ summer holiday in France, BB: 3/VI/22 (2021-981)

Little cloudy pale yellow beer, small creamy white head, stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: lots of citrs, fruity, floral, little soapy, sweet impression. MF: ok lively carbon, medium body. Taste: citrus, bit sourish, lemony, pretty bitter, hoppy, bit soapy. Aftertaste: fruity, bit sourish, oxidized, soapy, malty, gentle bitterness, honey, a bit oxidized.

'Unofficial' abbey ale referring to Adrian of Nicomeda, linked to the municipality of Geraardsbergen - I fail to see a link with Leuven where this beer is brewed, but anyway. Very thick and foamy, rocky (tetra hops extract?), eggshell-white, audibly crackling, tightly cobweb-lacing, stable head on an initially crystal clear, pale 'metallic' golden beer with fierce sparkling, very champagne-like; turns into a misty yellow blonde with sediment. Aroma of ripe banana, freshly baked white bread, green apple (acetaldehyde), plaster, chewing gum without the sweetness, dry straw, cold camomile tea, minerals, flour, hard green pear, hint of mud or damp earth. Crisp, fizzy onset, strong (over)carbonation adding sourness and a numbing effect to a basically sweetish fruitiness filled with banana ester (isoamylacetate), green apple, pear and unripe (non-sweet) pineapple; slick, lean body, but harshened by the overcarbonation. Wheaty-sourish and -soapy middle with a light-footed white-breadiness, ongoing banana and apple effects, slightly honeyish and sweetish but not overly so, simply moving on to a rather disappointing finish in which not much else happens apart from a floral hop bitter touch and increasing spicy phenols (clove, very vague eucalyptus). White bread sweetishness, banana and apple remain the dominant factors. A bit of a bummer: very simplistic, bland and 'levelled' in flavour, clean and straightforward but not leading anywhere; dramatically lacks character, this is like an industrial pale lager trying to upscale itself by being a so-called 'abbey ale'. Apparently intended to evoke the character of Rhine wines (with beer professor Delvaux joining forces) and even if I do see what they mean, I am still bored to death here - and the harsh overcarbonation does not help. Putting the name of a largely forgotten saint (except for Geraardsbergen I suppose) on the label of an all too easy 'doordrinker' blonde, regardless of its admittedly interesting intentions, does not often result in an interesting beer. I truly hope this resurrected Breda brewery at least does the old Peterman tradition justice, because this one for me fails to impress.