7.1

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

Blonde ale created for the open air museum erected at the Bois du Cazier, a mining site near Charleroi where in 1956 one of the worst mining disasters in history took place, claiming 262 lives. Bought at the local shop there. Very thin, off-white, open head, quickly reduced to a thin ring of bubbles, on a hazy apricot blonde beer with warm yolk yellow glow. Aroma of dried lemon zest, black radish peel, green wormwood leaf, banana, old jute rope, straw bales, apricot, drying white bread, clove, some soapy wheat (indeed used here), oxidized apple slices, minerals. Sweetish onset with sourish undertone but also a clear iron-like effect, as from ferrous brewing water; hints of banana, apricot and unripe peach, covered a bit under quite stingy carbonation numbing the tongue after a while. Slick white-bready and cereally malt middle with a dash of wheaty soapiness and sourishness at the edges, drying towards the end with retronasal 4-vinyl-guaiacol (clove), lingering fruity esters and a confident, medium long, bit wormwoody and rooty hop bitterness, ending a tad earthy as well. Typical dry and bitter standard Walloon blonde, easily quaffable with an 'honest' feel to it - and certainly not as dramatic as the horrible events it commemorates, luckily...