7.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Another aspiring home brewer, located in a village south of Charleroi, receiving a commercial forum from BeerSelect in Ghent, with a few different variants already on the market. This is their first beer, unsurprisingly a simple blonde, but apparently 'hopped up' without actually mentioning IPA intentions. Vichy bottle from Drink Malpaix in Walcourt. Very thick and frothy, beaten egg-white, tightly and refinedly membrane-lacing, pillowy, uneven-bubbled but very stable head, hazy 'old gold' robe with ochre tinge, turning more cloudy and a bit beige-tinged with sediment. Rather weak aroma of old coriander seed, spoiled cucumber, potato peel, oxidized green apple, very old lemon peel, armpit sweat, moist straw, raw turnip juice, leftover dough, withered common sorrel leaves, cooked parsnip, grass. Fruity onset, only moderately sweet with a sourish edge, vague impressions of banana peel, green apple and unripe peach with this underlying sourish touch possibly hinting at onsetting infection because feeling a tad 'dirty' as well; lively carb, smooth body. Plain cereally and 'old' white bread-doughy maltiness with grainy edges, 'filled' by esters and clove-like phenols (4-vinyl-guaiacol) as well as a crisp, but otherwise inexpressive citrus peel factor; floral, slightly grassy hop bitterness in the end, providing dryness and acting in a somewhat quenching way - but stale, dull and boring coriander seed 'spiciness' as well a lingering old citrus peel element add little 'fraîcheur', rather 'au contraire'. Ends dryish, phenolic and hop bitter, with still this citrus element desperately trying to keep everything juicy. In all, this is just another boring old Belgian blonde, though I must admit that its citrus-hopped factor enthusiastically pops up every now and then, grabbing the attention a bit.