Orvélo Sprint

Bottle. Pours hazy amber with airy off-white head. Clear aroma of wild yeast and malt, with touches of fruit. Bitter, hoppy flavour with dry notes of wild yeast and sweetish touches of malt. Dry and bitter aftertaste. Hihh carbonation. Decent.

A clear orange golden beer with a white lacing. Aroma of tart red berries, grapes, yeast, toffee. Taste of yeast, toffee, some tart red fruits, high carbonation.

Bottle from a pub quiz.
A: clear amber, thin, off-white head.
A: plum jam, redcurrant, rye, fruit cake, cheese.
T: sour plum, apricot, redcurrant, brioche, rye.
F: bitter herbal hops, vague clove, tart berry skin.
P: medium body, slick texture, average carbonation.
Agreeable Wild Ale, on the accessible side.

Very wild indeed - explosive gushing to huge, dense yellowish head. Orangeish amber, hazy beer. Obviously Bretts' nose, grapes, vinous and oriental herbs, as in a Chinese toko. Bretts in the flavour, preserved orange, citruspeel. Slightly vegetable frying oil. More preserved fruit on thickened juice, faintly spiced. Good (well... way too good) carbonation. Very slick, thick MF. Pity about the gushing - and that from de Proef???? In the style of other similar Brett beers, as Wild Jo or Ommegeddon. Purchased @ Dranken Goegebuer, Knesselare.

Dark orange colour with light haze and solid head. Aroma and flavour have Brett funk and also a little lemony citrus. Later there's a caramel element that reminds me of hot stone beer. Nice.

17/IX/21 - 75cl bottle, shared @ Nieuwjaarsreceptie Gentse Biervereniging, Hotel Columbo (Gent), BB: 12/VIII/23 (2021-1095)

SLOW GUSHER ALERT!
Pretty clear orange beer, big aery irregular white head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: yeasty, lots of banana, pretty spicy, peppery, yellow stone fruit. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: soft bitterness, very yeasty, more banana, little soapy, malty touch. Aftertaste: bitter touch, bitter, spicy, peppery, bit funky, dry, decent beer. Was expecting more from the brett yeast, with more than a year fermentation going on in the bottle though…

The fourth and - to my knowledge - most recent Orvélo beer from this Halfzeven 'bierfirma', 75 cl bottle bought at Den Hopduvel in Ghent. Egg-white, cobweb-lacing, thick but uneven-bubbled, stable head on an initially clear, pure amber-coloured beer with glowing orange hue and lively visible fizz, misty with sediment. Aroma of indeed unmistakable (though not overpowering) 'Bretty' horseblanket, glue, bread crust, dried apricot, vague pineapple, lightly toasted pine nuts, chewing gum, stale sweat, goat stable, clove, grass, apple peel. Fruity onset but not sweet, unripe peach, banana peel, apricot; fizzy carb, slick body, a tad bubblegummy and even glueish perhaps. Peanutty and bread-crusty maltiness under a growing 'wild' Brett effect - Michael Jackson's classic 'horseblanket' indeed, stale urine even, damp hay, yet still remaining in balance with the clean, slick malt profile. Floral, somewhat leafy hop bitter note in the end, but remaining friendly; unripe fruit accents linger on. Clearly 'Bretted', though for me this effect could have been even stronger; (successful) attempts were clearly made to keep it within certain limits, so as to let the malt speak as well. Personally I don't think this would have been an interesting beer without the Brett, so this was a good idea as far as I am concerned - very clearly inspired by Orval, which I suspect has been the source of inspiration for the brand's name all along (next to the 'vélo', French for bicycle, of course). Could perhaps become more Brett-forward and thus more interesting with some age on it?