Special Amarillo-dryhopped version of a honey beer commissioned by a beekeepery in Baardegem (near Aalst), flavoured with acacia honey; bottle bought at the pop-up shop linked to the Floraliën, the famed flower festival in Ghent going back to the 19th century. Very thick and foamy, plaster-like lacing, beaten egg-white, fluffy and stable head on a misty pale yellow blonde beer with a 'storm' of champagne-like sparkling rushing through, turning more deeply hazed and deeper golden coloured with sediment. Aroma of dried field flowers, old grapefruit peel, sweetclover, chamomile, white bread crust, straw, wrinkled green apple, withering sorrel leaf, dry hay, halfripe banana, potato peel, hints of dried sweat and gypsum. Fruity onset, banana ester mingled with hints of oxidized green apple, Conference pear and a vague dash of unripe apricot, lively carbonated, restrained in sweetness; supple, lean body, dryish white-bready pale maltiness with cracker-like edge, developing a play of phenolic spiciness (clove), ongoing traces of 'yellow-green' fruitiness and a flowery, herbal effect from the honey, all increasingly bittered by a floral, grapefruity and eventually quinine-ish hoppiness, lasting for a long time and bringing dryness and body to the finish. Quite a dry, hoppy, almost somewhat saison-like "Belgian IPA", adorned with herbal, floral honey accents but no honey sweetness - quite decent, in all; the long, rooty hop bitterness saves the day for me here. Better than expected, actually.

25/XII/21 - 33cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck (Vichte), shared @ my parents’ place, BB: V/2023 (2021-1608)

Clear pale yellow beer, small creamy dense off-white head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: floral, bit soapy, some citrus, grapefruit. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bit soapy, pretty bitter, floral, oxidized, some citrus, grapefruit. Aftertaste: more soapy notes, pretty bitter, dry, floral, more soapy.