Pours rather unclear amber, good white head. intense visual carbo. Smell is bit fruity, mild bitter. Taste is bit bitter, somewhat aromatic, but especially towards the aftertaste, when the maltyness kicks in. Ok, but overall a bit weak.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Préaris Mandarina Melon Session Ale (by Vliegende Paard Brouwers):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.3/5

7/X/16 - 33cl bottle from the brewer @ home, BB: 19/II/17 (2016-1213) Thanks to John for the delivery!

Clear deep golden to orange beer, big creamy yellowish head, very stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: lots of sweet malts, little fruity, some caramel, cookie dough, some band-aid. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: very bitter start, slightly acidic, some grapefruit, bit malty, sweet. Aftertaste: very harsh bitterness, almost medicinal, little grassy, bit metallic.

Very good and dense yellowish head over veiled orange beer, lazily carbonated; textbook lace. Rather creamy nose initially, bit malty. Faint fruity hops following, green leaves, fresh-smelling. Fruity, citrussy flavour, citruspeel. Earthy flavours, undergrowth. Ever so slight astringency from the hopoils. Creamy feel, but light body. Medium to good carbonation. Actually, quite likeable! Kleine opmerking: Mandarina Bavaria en Hüll Melon zijn hopvariëteiten...

19th June 2016
Hazy gold beer, good pale cream colour head. Palate is airy, semi dry and has decent fine carbonation. Fluffy malts, mildly sweet. A mildly bitter floral start. Dry orange and dry pith. Mild hop spice. Dry and pith finish. Dry, pithy and a little tired tasting.

Another new one from Préaris, and, like all their limited novelties which they themselves call ’boutique beers’, bearing a black and white label. Does not contain either mandarin or melon, but I hope these effects are created by the hops, which I assume is the intention. Thickly ’membranous’ lacing, off-white, densely moussy, very stable head over a hazy bright orange blonde beer with peachy hue and calm fizz. Quite perfumey aroma of ripe gooseberry, baked banana and even slight bubblegum, chamomile, dried ginger, honey, soap, stewed red apple, dry hay, lemon zest, bitterroot, cooked pineapple, turnip, (vague) green or unripe melon, raw chicory, faint hops-induced urine but nothing disturbing. Fruity onset, gooseberry, redcurrant, green banana and unripe peach, softly sourish with a softening sweetish edge, lively carbonation but refined and not coarse or deafening at all, just fit for this style. Smooth, in all quite ’full’ malty body for a 5% ABV beer, bit grainy at first, more bready towards the end probably due to the yeast as well, which adds a rooty yeast bitterness to an already developing, resinous, peppery, earthy hop bitterness which almost completely dries the finish and produces some nice floral and peppery aromas retronasally. Nice beer, perhaps taking the limits of ’session IPA’ just a bit too far with 5% ABV, but still a session ale at least to Belgian standards. What I do miss, however, is the mandarin and melon promised on the label: there is certainly delicate citrus in here, of a pleasant American hoppy pedigree, but not so much sweet mandarin - rather a lemon zest-like character; the same could be said of melon, another ’perfume’ produced by certain new hops, but like the mandarin, remaining very restrained here - though with some effort, an impression of green melon can be found somewhere. Regardless of this, I think this country needs a lot more beers like this, if only to convince the less educated ’pils’ drinker that beer can be both aromatically flavorful and ’sessionable’ (i.e. relatively light in alcohol even though this is a tad too strong for a true ’session IPA’ in the strict sense) at the same time. This one is still very Belgian (typical Belgian yeast effects mixed with the hop aromas), as can be said of most Belgian attempts at IPA of recent years - but then I can only argue once again that ’Belgian IPA’ should be a style concept in its own right. In that particular context, I’d recommend this to both the casual beer drinker and the more discerning beer afficionado.

Bottle @ tasting room, Oedelem. Hazy amber colour, nose citrus, pineapple, soap. Bitter hoppy finish. Good.