33cl bottle from Struise Beershop Woesten e-shop. Head is big, off-white, good retention. Colour is deep gold, hazy. Aroma is banana, apples, bready, nutmeg, coriander. Taste is full malty base, banana, pears, apples, honey, spicy, nice balanced bitterness, medium carbonation, good one, enjoyed.

Bottle 33cl. @home poured into a chalice. Clear deep amber colour, small fizzy white head, mostly diminishing, a few yeast circles remain, light lacing. Aroma sweet malts, Belgian yeast, some honey, caramel, hint banana, candy sugar, alcohol notes. Taste medium sweet and light bitter, malty, caramel, pear, candy sugar, light honey. some yeastiness, spicy notes, light alcohol. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation, smooth sweetbitter aftertaste, toffee, light banana notes, spicy touch, alcohol notes, tasty, well-balanced, easy to drink, full of character, good.

Medium, light yellow head, fed by fine pearling in cold hazed metallic orange beer. Alcohol nose, white candi sugar, caramel, sharp-ish greenery smell. Again this sharp, scorched sugar flavour, reminiscent of Huyghe brews. Again green leaves, not (very) sweet caramel. Dry. Good carbonation, bit slick but dry throughout into the long aftertaste. Harsh.

06/VI/21 - 33cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent), shared @ BBQ at my sister’s place, BB: II/2023 (2021-462)

Clear dark blond to orange beer, small creamy off-white head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: bit malty, floral, some chlorine, caramel touch, yeasty, some banana. MF: very lively carbon, medium body. Taste: bit sourish, grassy, pretty bitter, malty, sweet as well, lots of yeast. Aftertaste: quite some banana, pretty sweet, yeasty, somewhat grassy with a herbal bitter touch.

Three-grains tripel by De Zwarte Bron, brewed 'in situ', in Sint-Pauwels north of Sint-Niklaas. Thanks Jan! Thick and frothy, egg-white, mousy, stable head on a hazy peach blonde beer, turning cloudy with sediment. Aroma of ripe peach, banana, sugar loaf, white bread dough, cooked apple, a whiff of coriander but subtly so, honey, slight background notes of clove, nutmeg, roses and sweet cider. Fruity onset, mildly estery with impressions of banana, ripe pear and light peach, fizzy carbonation but rounded, supple, soft mouthfeel; smoothly white-bready maltiness and slick 'wheatiness' with a thinnish layer of residual honeyish sweetishness on top, all feeling very soft and even velvety - the latter thanks to the use of oats. Medium long finish, adding mild spicy accents of clove, nutmeg and coriander seed, but the latter has been kept well restrained, not interfering too much with a gentle floral hop bitterish tail, lingering banana ester and subtle breadiness - and a mild warming afterglow of calvados-like alcohol. Some wheaty sourishness and oaty graininess linger about in the end. Seemingly inspired by that famed three-grains tripel, Karmeliet by Bosteels (now in AB InBev's clutches), but deliberately made lighter in both strength and character; a highly drinkable intermediary between tripel and blonde, as it were, technically well executed with a balanced, elegant, gentle character. I could easily chug a few of these on a friendly spring afternoon.