Boer Bloem

Can. Dusty golden. Lots of floral notes, roses, sour raspberries, red currants, wort, herbal team, malt syrup. Medium sweet, bit lighter sour. Light bodied. Doesn’t really taste like beer, but it’s a nice drink.

Newish (nearly) non-alcohol beer, jumping on the bandwagon of the hype of low alcohol beers in Belgium; basically a non-alcoholic pale lager flavoured with hibiscus and elderblossom flowers, which is no coincidence, as its creator, Patrick Naudts, runs a flower farm in Lochristi. He is also the brother of Dirk Naudts, the man behind the highly acclaimed Proefbrouwerij in the same municipality, so I guess it was not too difficult for him to get his idea executed. Not for the first time, by the way, as he already delivers the flowers used in Bloemenbier and was - many years ago - also the guy behind Nog Eéntje, a near sugar-free, ultra-dry beer aimed at diabetics and sweetened with Stevia, when it was still allowed to trade actual plants rather than their extracts in pill form - and of course Patrick Naudts grew these plants in his flower farm. Nog Eéntje has long gone since then, but Naudt's flower farm relives in this Boer Bloem, sold in pink and white cans. Thick and frothy, intricately cobweb-lacing, snow white, dense and stable, closed head on a clear, straw blonde beer with pale golden tinge and a dense column of fiery sparkling in the middle, sustaining the head, turning misty and deeper apricot with sediment. Effectively flowery aroma of flower-scented hand soap, cold margarine, green apple, tulips, roses, indeed that typically tea-like and sweetish hibiscus paired with slightly less obvious elderblossom, raw zucchini, hard pear, honey, aspartame, low-fat cottage cheese, stewed rhubarb, vague hints of old graham crackers, bread crust, hay and lime juice. Fruity onset, sweet with impressions of pear, unripe peach and nectarine, with a refreshingly crisp, sour edge reminiscent of green apple and rhubarb; lively carbonation but not harshly so, rounded and rather buttery mouthfeel. Slender cereally graininess in the middle but attractively flavoured with sweet-and-sour fruitiness, indeed with a very flowery feel as well, again that herbal hibiscus and more 'meaty' elderblossom showing up but subtly and elegantly so, blending in with a 'generically' fruit-blossomy character that brings the combo of fruity-sweet and fruity-sour to a crisp, refreshing, zingy and zesty finish, where hops play no part at all - instead of bitterness, it is that light sourness which is continued well into the finish, paired with notes of aspartame, margarine, chalk and soap, minerally aspects I find in most alcohol-free beers and which always manage to bother me a bit, even if the rest of this beer is at least quite original and not unattractive at all. It feels like a flower-flavoured little kettle sour of sorts, elegantly crisp and light-footed - a flower soda with a beery look, so to speak. Truth be told, I had much worse non-alcoholic beers and even if this is not my (butter)cup of hibiscus tea at all, I do want to reward the effort, originality and technical skill that clearly went in here. To be preferred over the mass-marketed alcohol-free lagers, if you must insist on drinking non-alcoholic 'beer', of course...

Can from Aveve (of all places). Clear yellow, small, white head. Aroma of flowers (daisy, buttercup), honey, peach, citrus, vague margarine. Taste has sweetish stonefruit & flowers, sourish citrus & wheat, perfumey but not soapy, bit buttery though. Tart finish with lemon, herbal notes, bread & perfume. Light to medium body, slick texture, average carbonation. Not bad for 'No Alcohol' and actually sympathetic in a way.

Pours clear blonde, with a slight peachorange haze. Medium sized, medium stable white head. Scent is intensely herbal, would orient more to spices than flowers. Rhubarb-like . Taste is rhubarb like, fairly dry, mild bitterness. Very intense on the herbal side. Again, it's not really floral to me, more herbal ( and most of all rhubarb-like) I applaud the idea of new concepts in NA beers, but i'm not a big fan of this specific taste. I hope there'll be more offerings from these guys that might be more to my liking.

Hazy light orange/pinkish colour, creamy foam. Nose of hibiscus, lemon, flowers. Taste is tart, fruity, notes of hibiscus and elderflower. Refreshing. Very nice.