The Jacobs brothers of Antidoot have been experimenting with wild yeast strains 'caught' in their neighborhood for years and after a couple of ciders, this is the first beer to my knowledge that is sold (bottled) outside of the brewery in an official way, so for the sake of argument, let's regard this as the formal starting point of Antidoot's beer range and put it under scrutiny. Blonde sour ale brewed with self-harvested dandelions, the or du pré or meadow gold the name refers to; a multi-grains beer, too, containing barley, wheat and spelt, and aged in red wine barrels. Brewed in last year's spring and bottled less than three months ago, this may still be a bit too young for its kind to be fully developed, but curiosity got the better of me, especially after hearing so much about this much-anticipated brewery (at least in the beer geek 'milieu'); the brewery itself is apparently already completely sold out of beer at this moment, so it seems everyone in the craft beer community wants a piece of them. Glad I managed to obtain this bottle, a 75 cl dark green 'champagne' bottle with simple yet classy, albeit somewhat sinister label, closed with what seems to be a colmated cork and a crown cap on top of that. Forms an initially audibly crackling, eggshell-white, irregularly and sparsely lacing, mousy head, quite thick initially and retaining well, even if showing gaps after a while; equally misty, deep and warm pale orange-hued apricot robe, with very small bubbles rising up through the 'mist' quite enthusiastically, yet in a disparate, discreet way. Aroma quite saison-like with a few distantly lambic-ish features, emanating impressions of white bread pulp, soap (clear wheat!), relatively subtle but unmistakable 'Brett urine' (becoming more clear as the end of the bottle comes nearer), unripe pear, green meadow herbs (the dandelion, but could have been e.g. shepherd's purse, broadleaf plantain or cuckooflower as well for all I know), fresh half-dry hay, green apple, goat cheese, sour cream, sorrel leaves, old bread crust, hints of dry white wine and wine barrel indeed especially when warming up, old potatoes, parsnip, very old and lightly moldy lemon peel, damp earth, some background 'swimming pool chlorine'. Crisp onset, green and some yellow fruits, mostly green apple and hard pear with a dash of unripe apricot, very restrainedly sweetish core but much more tilted to the sour side, a tad lime juice-like, but in a sedate, lactic way without becoming outspokenly acidic at any point; carbonation is lively, but refined, adding minerally aspects and 'physical' refreshment without distracting from the actual flavour. Smooth, cereally malt backbone, some very vague pale malt sweetishness, very clear wheat soapiness (perhaps a tad much even) and also very clear, sharper and spicier spelt graininess, 'lightly' transporting the playful fruity aspects to a mildly earthy, softly but adequately bittering finish, in which hayish and floral hoppiness almost seamlessly blends with the weedy character of the dandelion - but it is the dandelion which provides the last, lingering impression, in the form of a typically 'weedy', almost wry and 'deep green' bitterness clinging to the root of the tongue - the bitter milk juice from these plants I tasted as a child springs back to memory. Fortunately though, and unlike in some other 'weed saisons' and the like I have encountered before, this effect remains gentle and refined, in some way acting as a 'blockage' agains the sourness, which altogether remains very soft and refined as well. The wine barrel effect remains limited and really a background factor, with some oaky tannins and even oaky 'flavour' noticeable in the end as well as a slight wine-like aspect - but as said, it's the dandelions that get the last word. Very quenching beer, this one, but a bit restrained and almost 'prudent' as well, like the first day of spring - still a while away, but this beer fills me with hope that spring will come early this year. Anyway, before I get all lyrical: interesting, with the dandelions applied in a less astringent way than I was fearing, but needs more time to develop, I wonder what the Brett, which is subtly but unmistakable present, will do to it in half a year (or longer) from now. As a starting point - well, kind of - for a line of commercial sours, promising to say the least; this brewery's wild fermentation approach still has some room for improvement I think, but this is a very decent take-off.

Bottle sample at a tasting at Porter & Sons. Murky golden. Funky, barnyard, flowers, wood, wine, spiciness, sour and bitter, medium-bodied.

Bottle at Luppolo Station in Rome - Italy. Orange hazy pour with a lacing. Nose: elder, wild flowers, leather, fruit. Mouth: a bit watery with grassy herbal overall.

0,75l bottle at tasting during Kruisweg 2018 with Tom and Raf. Orange cloudy colour, small white head. Smells earthy, spices, herbal, grassy, bit citric. Nice smell. Full body, soft carbonation, slick mouthfeel. Tastes ripe fruits, peppery, spices, earthy, light sweetness, bit citric, grassy, herbal, lightly flowery, some peach. Finishes lightly sweet and lightly bitter with notes of grass, citrus and earthy notes. Gets some very nice peachy notes once it warms up, quite good one 7, 4, 8, 3, 15